AID groups working in the Democratic Republic of Congo have accused the UN of “manipulating” data and bowing to government pressure ahead of elections later this month.

In a statement in November, the UN’s emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, put the overall number of people needing assistance in Congo in 2019 at 12.8 million, a slight decrease on last year, despite the fact that according to the authoritative IPC scale 13.1 million Congolese are facing crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity next year (up from 7.7 million in 2018).

The OCHA overall needs figure appears to only count the displaced as 1.37 million people newly displaced between January and August 2018. Aid groups say that overlooking three million people who had already been displaced prior to that will dramatically impact their ability to respond to needs, and may encourage forced closures of IDP camps.

A letter obtained by IRIN addressed to UN aid chief Mark Lowcock and Kim Bolduc, the UN’s most senior humanitarian official in Congo from a forum of 45 international NGOs working in the country, blames the decision on “increased politicisation of humanitarian data”, which they say sends a misleading message that the situation is improving “despite clear evidence to the contrary”. OCHA has denied manipulating data.