• Donors pledge over €1.5B in aid for Africa’s Great Lakes region
• Funds to support food, medicine, and livelihood recovery in conflict-hit areas
• France to reopen Goma Airport, establish secure aid corridors in eastern DRC

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday, October 30, 2025, that international donors have pledged more than €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) in humanitarian aid for vulnerable populations in Africa’s Great Lakes region.

“Together, we have taken an important step,” Macron said at a peace support conference hosted by France. “You have collectively mobilized more than €1.5 billion in assistance for the most vulnerable.” He said the funds will go toward providing medicine, food, and resources to help communities rebuild their livelihoods and regain food and economic self-sufficiency.

Macron also announced the planned reopening of Goma Airport in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for daytime humanitarian flights in the coming weeks, in coordination with Congolese authorities. In addition, France will help establish secure corridors for aid delivery.

The French president noted that the United Nations humanitarian response plan, initially estimated at €2.5 billion, had so far been funded at only 16 percent.

The Great Lakes region, comprising mainly the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, continues to face major challenges linked to insecurity, fragile governance, cross-border tensions, and humanitarian crises.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), by the end of 2024, the broader East Africa, Horn of Africa, and Great Lakes region hosted 26.3 million forcibly displaced people, including 5.6 million refugees and asylum seekers and 20.7 million internally displaced persons.

The DRC remains the hardest hit, with about 7 million displaced people in 2025, the UN says, due to intercommunal violence, natural disasters, and forced evictions linked to mining projects, compounded by the continued occupation of North Kivu and South Kivu by AFC/M23 rebels.

The Paris conference sought to rally the international community to address the worsening humanitarian situation, particularly in eastern Congo, and more broadly across the Great Lakes region.

Lydie Mobio