DR Congo: The impact of Food-related Violence in eastern DRC: Monitoring violence to support anticipation of needs (January - September 2025)

Country: Democratic Republic of the Congo Source: Insecurity Insight Please refer to the attached file. Executive Summary Between January and September 2025, Insecurity Insight recorded 102 incidents of violence directly affecting food systems in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), such as attacks on cattle, crops, farmland, and humanitarian food aid. This monitoring brief examines conflict activity with direct impact on food systems and livelihood activities and their connection to current and projected food insecurity in eastern DRC. By providing contextual information on conflict events, it explores whether the frequency and nature of such events can serve as an early indicator of future food insecurity, supporting anticipatory humanitarian action to address food security and prevent the worst consequences of food insecurity. Over time, the cumulative effect of individual incidents of food-related violence contributes to the progressive destruction of food systems, leading to increased levels of food insecurity and hunger. While the effects of violence are not always immediate, they often translate into acute food insecurity months later, once household reserves are exhausted and livelihoods cannot be restored due to lost harvests or disrupted agricultural cycles. The impact is particularly severe when incidents occur during critical planting, harvesting, or livestock-rearing periods and when humanitarian food-aid is simultaneously disrupted. Conflict incidents that damage livelihoods are also indicators of violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), which obliges parties to conflict to protect civilian objects essential for survival, including food systems. Addressing humanitarian needs therefore also requires acknowledging how disregard for the rules of war erodes community resilience and disrupts or destroys self-sufficient forms of food production, distribution and consumption, directly contributing to the humanitarian needs that are increasingly difficult to meet. These consequences are not an inevitable by-product of conflict but are part of the foreseeable consequences. Incidents of violence impacting food systems have been attributed to a range of armed actors within the DRC. Identifying the patterns of violence typical of different conflict parties is valuable for analysing the ways food systems are affected in areas under their influence and during periods of transitional control. Recognising actor-specific patterns helps anticipate likely food security outcomes where particular conflict parties are present, improving predictive analysis and early warning. It also supports more targeted advocacy by enabling humanitarian actors to articulate specific, evidence-based calls to conflict parties on how to comply with IHL and safeguard civilian access to food. This brief concludes that incidents of food-related violence produce predictable patterns of harm that accumulate over time, leading to food insecurity and, in the most severe cases, starvation and death. Insecurity Insight recommends taking a broad, pattern-focused view of these conflict incidents that factors in their reverberating effects over time. In addition to incident monitoring, consultation with affected populations, health care professionals, skilled workers focusing on the functionality of civilian infrastructure and colleagues in the aid sector, will be beneficial in monitoring these mid- and long-term impacts over time. This approach will facilitate the development of more appropriate harm-mitigation strategies and effective planning for the delivery and distribution of food aid.
2026-04-29 12:41:48