from JEAN KASSONGO in Kinshasa, DRC
DRC Bureau
KINSHASA, (CAJ News) – FOR the tenth year running, the Democratic Republic of Congo appears on the Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) annual list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises, with conditions deteriorating further.
“This is a testament to the world’s failure to respond to crises that are not regarded as strategically important for rich countries,” said NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland. “Millions of people are being abandoned because we have chosen not to act, not because we cannot. The uncomfortable truth is that this neglect is a choice, and something we can choose to end.”
In 2025, only 27.4 per cent of the funding required to respond to the crisis in DR Congo was provided — the lowest level in 10 years — leaving more than 21 million people in need with no or drastically reduced assistance. A decade ago, the international community provided 55 US dollars per person in need in DR Congo. Today, that figure has fallen to under 33 US dollars.
Countries such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Mali and Nigeria have all featured on the list six or more times, pointing to a systemic pattern of neglect rather than isolated failure.
“Donor governments have been presented with evidence of neglect year after year. Yet those in power still choose to prioritise military and strategic investments and underfund, deprioritise and sideline the victims of these crises. It is a failure of our humanity,” Egeland said.
The report is the tenth edition of NRC’s Neglected Displacement Crises Report, tracking how responses continue to fall short of the scale of suffering.
Sudan tops the list
The 10 most neglected crises for 2025 are Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Honduras, Ecuador, Cameroon, Nigeria and Mozambique, spanning three continents and affecting tens of millions of people the world continues to overlook.
The NRC report assesses each crisis across four indicators: media coverage, funding, political attention and scale of displacement. A lower score indicates a larger gap between the scale of human suffering and the adequacy of the international response.
Sudan tops this year’s list. More than 9 million people are internally displaced, and up to 4 million have fled to neighbouring countries. Nearly 19.5 million people inside Sudan are facing hunger, yet the international response remains wholly inadequate to the scale of suffering.
“It is incomprehensible that a displacement crisis of similar proportions to those in Syria and Ukraine at their peak can continue to worsen almost unnoticed,” Egeland said. “Just as needs in Sudan skyrocketed last year and famine kept spreading, funding was cut. Many displaced people receive no international support and are left to beg for assistance from other displaced people who no longer have anything more to share.”
A decade of the same pattern
Since NRC began publishing this report 10 years ago, 27 crises across four continents have appeared on the list, and the pattern is clear. The African continent features most consistently. From the Sahel region to the Horn of Africa, from the Great Lakes to West Africa, many cases involve prolonged or repeated displacement. Across the board, neglect coincides with restricted humanitarian access. With rare exceptions, crises ignored a decade ago are still being overlooked today.
In DR Congo, an Ebola outbreak now spreading across eastern areas — declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO in May 2026 — is unfolding in communities already devastated by years of displacement and humanitarian neglect.
“Behind every statistic in eastern DR Congo are families who have endured years of violence, repeated displacement and deep uncertainty about their future,” said Eric Batonon, NRC’s country director in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “While attention shifts from one global emergency to another, millions of Congolese continue to live without adequate protection, assistance or hope. The fact that DR Congo remains among the world’s most neglected crises for the tenth consecutive year should serve as a wake-up call to the international community.”
What NRC is calling for
The gap between needs and available humanitarian funding is widening due to severe funding cuts. This is affecting neglected crises most severely, as they already receive less funding per person in need.
NRC urges donor governments to fund crises based on humanitarian need and scale of displacement, not geopolitical interest. It calls on political leaders and diplomats to engage seriously with the root causes of protracted displacement, many of which persist precisely because they are seen as having little geopolitical importance. It also calls on media organisations to report on these crises with the consistency and depth they demand as ongoing emergencies.
“The crises ignored today will demand a larger, costlier and more complex response tomorrow,” said Egeland. “The world does not lack skills or resources. Whether arranging football World Cups or pioneering space exploration, our ability to organise and overcome challenges is almost without limit. We can and must finally take the decision to end the neglect that has caused such deep suffering for millions of people.”
– CAJ News