Advocating for the protection of IDPs and refugees in Kalemie: Starting from zero in April 2025 to national and international recognition of Kikongo IDP Camp now

We started from zero and at a certain time, we did not know where to start from because everything was a priority for people in Kikingo IDP Camp located in Katanika Village, Kalemie City, Tanganyika Province in DRC. We realized that we may not handle ourselves the humanitarian crisis which was caused by the presence of IDPs, we needed other players to be involved and play but the task was not easy. We had to work on the political attitudes of the local political leaders who did not want the province to be recognized as one among the affected provinces, but also we faced the resistance and threats from the United Nations Agencies who claimed that IDPs we are talking about are illegal migrants.

We greatly thank our donors mainly GlobalGiving Community Aid Fund and COHERE who supported us in order to do what we could, now Kikoko IDP Camp is the model and the face of Camps in Kalemie which attracts currently partners from allover the world and where IDPs have been getting relief aid.

Here is our report on the situation of Kikongo IDPs Camp

However other IDP Camps are still in bad situation and people are fully abandoned, more efforts need to be done in order to advocate for their situation. Here is for example Gari-Makala IDP Camp, not much has changed and IDPs are still at risk here, these houses get burning all the time and should be improved.