Nairobi (dpa) - Millions of displaced people around the world are being largely abandoned by the international community, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Thursday.

In its annual report on the world's most neglected displacement crises, the aid organisation pointed to major gaps in the international response to humanitarian emergencies.

"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's Secretary General Jan Egeland.

"Millions of people are being abandoned because we have chosen not to act," he added.

The report assesses each crisis based on four criteria: media coverage, funding, political attention and the scale of displacement. The lower the score, the greater the gap between the scale of human suffering and the adequacy of the international response.

"Almost unnoticed"

Sudan tops this year's list. More than three years of civil war have displaced more than 11 million people within the country and in neighbouring states, while almost 29 million face acute food insecurity.

"It is incomprehensible that a displacement crisis of similar proportions to the crises 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, the funding was cut."

DRC features for the 10th time

The Democratic Republic of Congo appears on the NRC list for the 10th time, with the United Nations estimating more than 7 million people are internally displaced.

More than 100 armed groups operate in the resource-rich east, where millions have fled local warlords, an Islamist militia and the M23 rebel group, which controls large parts of North Kivu province.

The north-eastern province of Ituri has also become the centre of the current Ebola outbreak.

Author: widman.miriam

Millions of displaced people abandoned, aid group NRC says

widman.miriam