Africa home to all of the world’s top 10 neglected crises

The world’s most ignored displacement crises are in Africa, according to an annual ranking. It’s the first time all 10 are on the African continent.

10 African nations top a list of countries where people’s suffering from displacement and conflict is internationally neglected, according to an annual ranking by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the most neglected country on the list for the second year running, followed by Burkina Faso, Cameroon and South Sudan.

 Chad, Mali, Sudan, Nigeria, Burundi and Ethiopia complete the list.

“DRC has become a textbook example of neglect,” said Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the aid organization, said in a statement marking the report’s launch on Wednesday.

“It is one of the worst humanitarian crises of this century, yet those inside and outside of Africa with power to create change are closing their eyes to the waves of brutal and targeted attacks on civilians that shatter communities,” Egeland said.

Some 5.5 million people were internally displaced in DRC in 2021 because of intercommunal tension and conflict, the report noted, with a further 1 million fleeing to neighboring countries.

Having to flee their homes leaves people at risk of starvation and children without education and can prolong the conflicts and violence that are often responsible for the displacements in the first place.

One-third of the population, or some 27 million people, went hungry in DRC last year.

“I can’t plan for my children’s future, there is nothing beyond finding food each day,” a 37-year-old mother in DRC’s conflict-ridden northeastern Ituri province told the refugee council.

Five of her family members were killed in a massacre and her house was burned to the ground.

“The world doesn’t know how we suffer here,” she said.