Check against delivery! 

Dear President, 

Honourable Members of the European Parliament,  

What is happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is not a new crisis. It is an escalation of the crisis within the crisis.  

The humanitarian situation is devastating: already before the latest developments, there were 800 000 Internally Displaces Persons around Goma, cramped in heavily populated sites for displaced persons. Since the attack on Goma by M23 and the Rwanda Army, many displacement sites are now reported to have been emptied: some occupants have fled to other neighbourhoods of Goma, others have attempted to return to their villages in the Masisi and Rutshuru territories, which are currently under M23 control. The risk of forced closure of the remaining sites is high due to the policy of M23, which opposes the presence of this kind of sites in areas under its control. 

There are reports from Goma of around 3 000 deaths caused by the fighting, with bodies in the streets and overloaded morgues. All hospitals in this town are overcrowded and many are operating at twice their capacity. The threat for epidemics such as cholera is growing. 

Humanitarian actors are slowly coming back now that the fighting is over, and assessments for restarting the response as soon as possible are ongoing, notably at sites for displaced and medical facilities. However, the response is severely hampered by the security situation, and by a lack of available commodities, as many warehouses of humanitarian aid agencies were broken into and looted during the fighting. 

The airport of Goma was damaged in the fighting and is not operational for humanitarian aid flights. 

Humanitarian access to the most vulnerable people has been limited and remains a challenge where fighting is taking place. We need urgent political action to secure a humanitarian truce, ensure the protection of civilians, and enable full humanitarian access. 

The European Union has insisted on key humanitarian messages to all parties in conflict: 

Keep borders open for refugees and humanitarian workers. 

Allow humanitarian corridors where appropriate and ensure principled humanitarian access. 

Ensure the protection of civilians and respect for International Humanitarian Law, particularly with the increased risk of gender-based violence in this context. 

Preserve the safety of humanitarian staff, health workers, and medical facilities. 

Engage in negotiations for a humanitarian truce. 

It is imperative that the airport in Goma re-opens for humanitarian flights, to allow our partners to re-supply their looted stocks, and to bring in much-needed life-saving equipment. 

The European Union stands ready to continue supporting the humanitarian response. The European Union alone is the second largest humanitarian aid donor in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We have allocated €112 million in humanitarian aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo last year. European Union Member States are also strongly contributing to this response. 

As response to this new “crisis within a crisis”, the Commission has accelerated the disbursement of its initial 2025 budget for Democratic Republic of Congo of €60 million. We are currently establishing which humanitarian partners still have the capacity to effectively intervene. On that basis, we have pre-selected the first six partners already on 27 January, while the fighting for Goma was still raging, for urgent interventions over €25 million of the €60 million announced. We are ensuring that these funds will be disbursed without delay. 

Thank you. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-266929  

Closing remarks  

Thank you, dear Chair,

Honourable Members, 

Thank you for your interventions. I will try to reply to some of your questions.  

The European Union’s position is clear, and has remained consistent throughout discussions with both partner countries. 

The Commission will not support concrete investments in mineral processing from which the origin is uncertain.  

In Rwanda, current European Union support focuses on some [areas, such as] professionalism in the mining sector. For instance, supporting skills of minors and digitalisation of licenses as well as insuring safe working conditions – including the fight against the child labour. And enhancing compliance with international safety and environmental standards.  

On suspending the Memorandum of Understanding. Suspending could be self-defeating as it would remove the basis for this engagement with Rwanda and undermine an incentive to ensure responsible mineral production and trade by Rwanda. 

On sanctions against Rwanda, for several years, the European Union has kept in place a regime of restrictive measures in view of the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which complements the United Nations’ sanctions. These have targeted, among others, the leadership of the armed group M23 and two Rwandan military officers.  

This is a dynamic process. The European Union is closely monitoring the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and can, at any time, extend the list of person and entities targeted by its measures if, of course, all Member States agree.  

Once again, I repeat to Madame Vautmans, on the Commission financial allocation to the Democratic Republic of Congo: the €60 million are the initial allocation for the Democratic Republic of Congo under the humanitarian implementation plan for the Great Lakes. Of these, as I have already said, we already allocated €25 million in an emergency selective process to its partners and our rapid response mechanism in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

As soon as we have more clarity on the situation, and visibility on the intervention by other partners, we will allocate the remaining €35 million. It is too early to say whether the Commission can make available further funding, but we will certainly undertake efforts to do so. We then count on the Parliament’s support. 

To complement the funding, we are also looking into the possibility of organising a humanitarian air bridge into Goma as soon as the airport will be open and once partners’ transport needs are clear. 

To conclude, the European Union will continue its efforts to bring humanitarian assistance to those in need, despite all the difficulties. But it is clear that humanitarian aid is insufficient in view of the dimension of the crisis. We are aware of that. We must use all the political tools at our disposal to urgently bring an end to this fighting. All of you know, and this is what we can do only together.  

Thank you. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-266931