World ignoring Congo crisis, says aid agency

MORE than 1,000 Congolese civilians a day are dying, nearly all from disease and malnutrition, due to a festering conflict that has killed 3.8 million people, an aid agency said yesterday.

Although the Democratic Republic of Congo’s five-year war was declared over last year, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said it was still the “deadliest crisis” in the world, but the international community was doing too little to stop it.

“In a matter of six years, the world lost a population equivalent to the entire country of Ireland or the city of Los Angeles,” said Dr Richard Brennan, one of the authors of a study by the private New York-based refugee relief agency.