The European Union announced Wednesday an aid package worth almost 70 million euros ($77 million) for the Great Lakes region of Africa which has been plagued by conflict and natural disasters.

"The humanitarian situation in the Great Lakes region is desperate -– and is expected to deteriorate further in 2024 as the conflict intensifies and the root causes of violence persist," Janez Lenarcic, EU commissioner for crisis management, said in a statement.

The statement said 63.75 million euros ($70 million) of the package was allocated to humanitarian projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) including 4.75 million euros ($5.2 million) for disaster risk reduction.

"Already we have seen a significant deterioration in the security situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with devastating effects on civilians," Lenarcic said.

An additional six million euros ($6.6 million) has been granted to provide aid to Burundian refugees who fled to neighbouring Tanzania and Rwanda as well as those who have returned to Burundi.

In a region where "gender-based violence and violations of International Humanitarian Law are especially prevalent... the EU's humanitarian funding will contribute towards alleviating the suffering of the most vulnerable," Lenarcic added.

After eight years of dormancy, the Tutsi-led M23 rebellion took up arms again in late 2021, seizing large swathes of DRC's North Kivu region -- cutting off all land access to its capital Goma except via the Rwandan border in early February.

According to the DRC, the United Nations and Western powers, neighbouring Rwanda is backing the M23, an allegation Kigali denies.

The UN estimated at the end of 2023 that nearly seven million people were displaced in the DRC, including 2.5 million in the province of North Kivu alone.