Overshadowed by the Syrian war and Rohingya crisis, Congo barely made headlines. With millions of people on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe and children facing unspeakable violence, the Democratic Republic of Congo was the most neglected crisis in 2017, according to a survey of aid agencies. The Central African Republic, with its "off the charts" vulnerability, and Yemen - ravaged by war and hunger - ranked behind Congo
"A massive humanitarian crisis has been unfolding in the Congo almost unnoticed," said Mark Smith, World Vision's emergencies chief. "The scale and brutality of what is happening to children in hard to reach places is almost unimaginable." World Vision said it believed years of repeated and overlapping conflicts in Congo meant it had "fallen off people's radar"
An insurrection against the government in the Greater Kasai region has displaced more than 1 million people in what the Norwegian Refugee Council called a "mega-crisis". Food shortages have left millions hungry with hundreds of thousands of children at risk of dying.Agencies have received accounts of mass killings, rapes and beheadings. There have also been reports of horrendous attacks on babies and young children. Children as young as 10 have been recruited by armed groups, while others left orphaned are sleeping alone in forests. Provinces in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo also remain volatile. Across the country, 13.1 million people need assistance, nearly a third of whom are displaced.
Oxfam named Central African Republic (CAR) as "the most forgotten of forgotten crises" with 2.4 million people needing help "in a country that most people don't even know exists".
CAR has been racked by violence since mainly Muslim rebels ousted the president in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian militias.
The U.N. refugee agency said 1.1 million people - nearly a quarter of the population - had fallen through the cracks and warned the "calamitous situation" would worsen unless a massive funding shortfall was addressed.
Two agencies flagged the displacement crisis in the Lake Chad Basin, which was voted the most neglected emergency in last year's poll.An eight-year campaign by Boko Haram militants to create an Islamist caliphate has affected millions of people. With most coverage focused on Nigeria, Plan International singled out the impact on its forgotten neighbour Niger where more than 400,000 people need help. It said militants were killing and threatening teachers, forcing children to miss school and raising their vulnerability to sexual violence, abduction and enslavement.
"These children deserve the world's attention. The violence which is robbing a generation of an education and forcing them to grow up in a world of fear has got to stop," said Plan's humanitarian director Roger Yates.
With starvation threatening millions in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, one agency picked famine as the year's most neglected crisis. Mercy Corps' humanitarian chief Michael Bowers said food was increasingly being used as a "weapon of war" with little action taken by the international community. "Global hunger is on the rise for the first time this century," he said. "We fear 2018 will look much like 2017 without a massive drive to fight back hunger."
"A massive humanitarian crisis has been unfolding in the Congo almost unnoticed," said Mark Smith, World Vision's emergencies chief. "The scale and brutality of what is happening to children in hard to reach places is almost unimaginable." World Vision said it believed years of repeated and overlapping conflicts in Congo meant it had "fallen off people's radar"
An insurrection against the government in the Greater Kasai region has displaced more than 1 million people in what the Norwegian Refugee Council called a "mega-crisis". Food shortages have left millions hungry with hundreds of thousands of children at risk of dying.Agencies have received accounts of mass killings, rapes and beheadings. There have also been reports of horrendous attacks on babies and young children. Children as young as 10 have been recruited by armed groups, while others left orphaned are sleeping alone in forests. Provinces in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo also remain volatile. Across the country, 13.1 million people need assistance, nearly a third of whom are displaced.
Oxfam named Central African Republic (CAR) as "the most forgotten of forgotten crises" with 2.4 million people needing help "in a country that most people don't even know exists".
CAR has been racked by violence since mainly Muslim rebels ousted the president in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian militias.
The U.N. refugee agency said 1.1 million people - nearly a quarter of the population - had fallen through the cracks and warned the "calamitous situation" would worsen unless a massive funding shortfall was addressed.
Two agencies flagged the displacement crisis in the Lake Chad Basin, which was voted the most neglected emergency in last year's poll.An eight-year campaign by Boko Haram militants to create an Islamist caliphate has affected millions of people. With most coverage focused on Nigeria, Plan International singled out the impact on its forgotten neighbour Niger where more than 400,000 people need help. It said militants were killing and threatening teachers, forcing children to miss school and raising their vulnerability to sexual violence, abduction and enslavement.
"These children deserve the world's attention. The violence which is robbing a generation of an education and forcing them to grow up in a world of fear has got to stop," said Plan's humanitarian director Roger Yates.
With starvation threatening millions in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, one agency picked famine as the year's most neglected crisis. Mercy Corps' humanitarian chief Michael Bowers said food was increasingly being used as a "weapon of war" with little action taken by the international community. "Global hunger is on the rise for the first time this century," he said. "We fear 2018 will look much like 2017 without a massive drive to fight back hunger."
Poll results
DRC - WFP, Christian Aid, Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE, Save the Children, FAO, World Vision, UNICEF
Yemen - Action Against Hunger, Islamic Relief, International Medical Corps, Danish Refugee Council
Central African Republic - UNHCR, Oxfam, International Rescue Committee
Lake Chad Basin - ActionAid, Plan International
Famine - Mercy Corps
Migration crisis - IFRC
South Kordofan, Sudan - Caritas
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