441-02579 (Foreign affairs)

WHEREAS:

• Severe clashes between the military and insurgents continue in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC);

• An escalation in the violence in eastern Congo has resulted in desperate humanitarian conditions, with the UN announcing in October 2023 that the number of internally displaced people in DRC has reached a record high of 6.9 million;

• Vulnerable women and children, many orphaned by the war, living in extreme poverty in camps, with neither adequate food nor shelter to survive; and

• There is an ongoing crisis of child homelessness and hunger on the streets of Goma, Eastern DRC, as witnessed by Mimi Kashira Haws, a resident of Kingston originally from Goma, who spent three months in the area in 2024, working with the displaced.

We, the undersigned, residents of Kingston and the Islands, call upon the Government of Canada to provide humanitarian aid for the children suffering in Eastern DRC.