EU promises new aid to address Africa’s Great Lakes refugee crisis

By Benjamin Fox, The EUobserver, 19 February 2026

NAIROBI - The EU has stepped up its humanitarian support for refugees eastern DR Congo, with the bloc’s equality and crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib concluding a three-day trip to the region on Thursday (19 February) — which included visits to Goma, the largest city in the Kivu region which borders Rwanda and Burundi.

In January 2025, Goma was captured by the M23 militia group.

The conflict, which has escalated over the past two years, has drawn in a plethora of African countries and the international community.

Rwanda, which also has thousands of troops stationed in eastern DR Congo, says that the deployment is needed to protect its borders from Ccngolese militia groups

Last year, the Donald Trump administration brokered a ceasefire agreement between DR Congo and Rwanda/M23 — in exchange for access to DR Congo’s mineral resources and mining investment.

21 million people requiring aid

It has resulted in a major humanitarian crisis with more than 21 million people in DR Congo alone requiring humanitarian assistance.

On Thursday, Lahbib was due to be at the Busuma refugee camp in Burundi which currently hosts more than 65,000 people.

On Tuesday, the EU commission said that it was providing more than €81.2m in humanitarian aid across the Great Lakes but Lahbib said in a statement that “money alone will not stop suffering.”

“Aid workers must be able to reach people safely, quickly and without obstacles. International humanitarian law is not a buffet table. You don’t pick and choose. It is a duty for all parties, and it must be fully respected,” she warned.

The M23 militia group and its political wing, the Congo River Alliance, said that it hoped that the visit by Lahbib would “allow a frank and constructive exchange on the humanitarian situation and the realities experienced by the populations.”

Rwanda admission

Last week, Bertrand Bisimwa, the leader of M23, admitted that it was supported by Rwanda — something which has been consistently denied but that this backing was necessary to protect the Tutsi population living in eastern DR Congo from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Hutu group that is a legacy of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

He also said that the Congo River Alliance was not seeking to secede from DR Congo but to have autonomy as part of a confederation.

But M23’s capture of towns within a handful of kilometres of the Burundian border has worried its government which is one of several African states to have contributed troops to support the Congolese army.

Burundi’s National Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (ONPRA) estimates that more than 90,000 refugees crossed over into Burundi in December.

The United Nations believes that this has doubled total refugee numbers from Congo to 165,000.

Prior to Lahbib’s visit, EU officials had conceded that assistance was only just starting to scale up in Burundi.

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of CEMAS Board.