LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - With an Ebola epidemic raging and millions caught in a forgotten “catastrophe” of conflict and hunger, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was the most neglected crisis of 2018, according to an annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of aid agencies.

This year’s survey was unusual for the high number of “most forgotten crises”, with experts also listing the Central African Republic, Lake Chad Basin, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Burundi, Nigeria and, for the first time, Venezuela.

But Congo’s “mega-crisis” barely made headlines, they said, even as the country gears up for landmark elections on Sunday which some fear could stoke further unrest.

“The brutality of the conflict is shocking, the national and international neglect outrageous,” said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“I visited Congo this year and have seldom witnessed such a gap between needs and assistance.”

Congo, where 13 million people in a population of 82 million need help, also topped the annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll in 2017, but agencies said the situation had deteriorated.

Six of 21 agencies polled named Congo as the most neglected crisis, including WFP, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, ActionAid, International Rescue Committee, and Christian Aid.

ActionAid’s humanitarian advisor Rachid Boumnijel urged the international community to redouble efforts to end years of conflict characterized by sexual brutality.

“It’s been a catastrophe for the country, and for women and girls particularly,” Boumnijel said.

Christian Aid’s head of humanitarian programs Maurice Onyango said the violence had caused “large-scale trauma”, with children witnessing parents and siblings being murdered.

An upsurge of fighting in the east of the mineral-rich country has also exacerbated the spread of the world’s second largest Ebola outbreak, agencies said.

The Central African Republic, where armed groups control much of the country and 60 percent of the population needs assistance, came a close second in the poll.

Listed as the most neglected by OCHA, UNICEF, MercyCorps, Plan International, and Caritas, the country has been racked by violence since mainly Muslim rebels ousted the president in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian militias.

Armed groups are increasingly targeting schools, hospitals, mosques and churches, while attacks on aid workers have impacted a “chronically underfunded” humanitarian response, they said.

U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said thousands of children had been trapped in armed groups or subjected to sexual violence.

“The crisis is growing increasingly desperate and resources are at breaking point,” added UNICEF emergencies director Manuel Fontaine.

U.N. appeals for both DRC and CAR are less than 50 percent funded.

“Central African Republic is in a death spiral,” said Caritas Secretary General Michel Roy. “While governments and the world’s media have turned their backs, we must not. It’s the only hope CAR has left.”

Plan International said the media neglected complex crises like CAR and DRC because they lacked the shock factor of a sudden disaster like Indonesia’s huge earthquake in September.

Yemen, at risk of the world’s worst famine in 100 years, was highlighted by Muslim Hands and World Vision.

“With three quarters of the population needing assistance, I can’t see how Yemen isn’t at the top of everyone’s list,” said World Vision emergencies chief Mark Smith.

International Medical Corps warned the disaster in Lake Chad basin, where climate change and a prolonged insurgency by Boko Haram and Islamic State have left 11 million needing help, was also set to worsen next year.

Action Against Hunger said millions caught up in the “almost invisible” crisis - affecting Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon - faced poverty, hunger, sexual violence and child kidnapping.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s biggest relief network, said hunger and disease following major flooding across Nigeria threatened to create a second protracted crisis in the country.

“I’m shocked by how little attention (this) has received. The figures are staggering,” said IFRC Secretary General Elhadj As Sy, adding that nearly 2 million people were impacted, more than 200,000 uprooted and swathes of cropland destroyed.

“This massive disaster has gone largely unnoticed by many donors and journalists,” he added.

This year was the first time Venezuela featured in the poll.

About 3.3 million people have fled political turmoil and economic meltdown in the Latin American country - many driven by hunger or violence - and another 2 million could follow next year, according to U.N. estimates.

The United Nations has launched a $738 million appeal to help nearby countries cope with what one U.N. official called a “humanitarian earthquake”.

CARE said evidence on the ground suggested the real number fleeing was far higher than the U.N. figure.

“Given its scale, it’s incredible how neglected the situation in Venezuela is,” said CARE humanitarian expert Tom Newby. “The world needs to wake up to this crisis.”

Afghanistan was ranked the most neglected crisis by Islamic Relief Worldwide, and South Sudan by Save the Children. The UNHCR named Burundi while mixed migration was highlighted by the Danish Refugee Council.</s>An upsurge of fighting in the east of the mineral-rich part of Democratic Republic of the Congo has exacerbated the spread of the world’s second largest Ebola outbreak. Photo: Reuters</s>With an Ebola epidemic raging and millions caught in a forgotten "catastrophe" of conflict and hunger, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was the most neglected crisis of 2018, according to an annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of aid agencies.

This year's survey was unusual for the high number of "most forgotten crises," with experts also listing the Central African Republic, Lake Chad Basin, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Burundi, Nigeria and, for the first time, Venezuela.

"The brutality of the conflict is shocking, the national and international neglect outrageous," said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council. "I visited Congo this year and have seldom witnessed such a gap between needs and assistance."

Congo, where 13 million people in a population of 82 million need help, also topped the annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll in 2017, but agencies said the situation had deteriorated. Six of 21 agencies polled named Congo as the most neglected crisis, including WFP, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, ActionAid, International Rescue Committee, and Christian Aid.

ActionAid's humanitarian advisor Rachid Boumnijel urged the international community to redouble efforts to end years of conflict characterized by sexual brutality. "It's been a catastrophe for the country, and for women and girls particularly," Boumnijel said.</s>With an Ebola epidemic raging and millions caught in a forgotten "catastrophe" of conflict and hunger, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was the most neglected crisis of 2018, according to an annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of aid agencies.

This year's survey was unusual for the high number of "most forgotten crises", with experts also listing the Central African Republic, Lake Chad Basin, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Burundi, Nigeria and, for the first time, Venezuela.

But Congo's "mega-crisis" barely made headlines, they said, even as the country gears up for landmark elections on Sunday which some fear could stoke further unrest.

"The brutality of the conflict is shocking, the national and international neglect outrageous," said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

"I visited Congo this year and have seldom witnessed such a gap between needs and assistance."

Congo, where 13 million people in a population of 82 million need help, also topped the annual Thomson Reuters Foundation poll in 2017, but agencies said the situation had deteriorated.

Six of 21 agencies polled named Congo as the most neglected crisis, including WFP, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, ActionAid, International Rescue Committee, and Christian Aid.

ActionAid's humanitarian advisor Rachid Boumnijel urged the international community to redouble efforts to end years of conflict characterised by sexual brutality.

"It's been a catastrophe for the country, and for women and girls particularly," Boumnijel said.

Christian Aid's head of humanitarian programmes Maurice Onyango said the violence had caused "large-scale trauma", with children witnessing parents and siblings being murdered.

An upsurge of fighting in the east of the mineral-rich country has also exacerbated the spread of the world's second largest Ebola outbreak, agencies said.

The Central African Republic, where armed groups control much of the country and 60 per cent of the population needs assistance, came a close second in the poll.

Listed as the most neglected by OCHA, UNICEF, MercyCorps, Plan International, and Caritas, the country has been racked by violence since mainly Muslim rebels ousted the president in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian militias.

Armed groups are increasingly targeting schools, hospitals, mosques and churches, while attacks on aid workers have impacted a "chronically underfunded" humanitarian response, they said.

UN children's agency UNICEF said thousands of children had been trapped in armed groups or subjected to sexual violence.

"The crisis is growing increasingly desperate and resources are at breaking point," added UNICEF emergencies director Manuel Fontaine.

UN appeals for both DRC and CAR are less than 50 per cent funded.

"Central African Republic is in a death spiral," said Caritas Secretary General Michel Roy. "While governments and the world's media have turned their backs, we must not. It's the only hope CAR has left."</s>Twice a week, Mama Mwatatu rises early and makes a two-hour trek from her home in Beni’s Cité Belge neighbourhood in North Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the local radio station. For the past 12 years, she has hosted a call-in radio talk show called “Women and Development” and has a devoted audience, earning her the nickname Mother Counsellor of Beni.

In normal times, she dispenses advice on health, relationships and child-rearing. But since this August, Ebola has shaken residents and the city is the base for outbreak response efforts in North Kivu. Mama Mwatatu’s mostly female fans have inundated her with questions: Why aren’t you talking to us about this? We don’t know what to believe. But if you tell us that Ebola exists, then we trust you.

“I told them: ‘Ebola is real, and you have to protect yourself and your family,’” Mama Mwatatu says. “But I wasn’t sure I had all the answers to the more technical questions so I got in touch with the World Health Organization (WHO) for assistance.”

And so Mama Mwatatu teamed up with WHO’s community engagement team and her two weekly shows expanded from 30 minutes to an hour.

The current Ebola outbreak in the northeast of the DRC – the tenth since the disease was identified in 1976 – has stood out as the country’s largest. Response efforts have been complicated by insecurity and armed conflict. Another challenge is how this outbreak has disproportionately affected women.

As of mid-December there have been more than 500 cases, of which two-thirds were women.

“It’s the first time in an Ebola outbreak that so many women have been infected,” says Julienne Anoko, a social anthropologist working for WHO. “We’ve never seen this before.”

In previous outbreaks, the toughest opponents to first responders have been mostly men, but another singularity of this outbreak is that women have often been the most hostile.

In Beni, it’s the women who run the households. They look after the children and they care for the sick. If a mother herself falls sick, she’ll hand over her children – who may possibly already also have Ebola – to a neighbour who will mind them along with her own. This is one way the disease has spread.

“We discovered that women are very reluctant to let the sick go outside the home for treatment because, to them, that signifies they’ve failed in their duty to look after the patient,” says Ms Anoko.

Women are also the chief mourners when a family member dies, weeping over the deceased and preparing the body for burial. This can also contribute to the transmission of Ebola.

The initial engagement with women got off to a rocky start, because they often felt alienated by foreign male responders speaking French rather than their local language. When Ms Anoko arrived in Beni on 7 October, she quickly understood the urgent need to win over women.

She started working with the Collectif des Associations Feminines (CAF), an umbrella association of about 45 local groups. WHO educated 132 women leaders from CAF about the disease and then the women conducted an intensive two-week information campaign in 30 Beni neighbourhoods, including the most dangerous and insecure.

Going door to door, the women visited 2,900 households in the first three days of the campaign, engaging with almost 13,000 people. In the following 12 days, in meetings at churches and markets, they reached more than 600,000 people explaining Ebola vaccines, contact tracing, the treatment of Ebola, and the vulnerability of women and children to the disease.

“At the start of the outbreak, local women saw these men in jackets doing ‘Ebola business’ and thought, this doesn’t really concern us,” explains Antoinette Zawadi, CAF’s coordinator. “Then as women leaders from Beni became involved, other women started to listen. They said, ‘OK, it’s between us now.’”

Ms Zawadi believes the efforts are paying off.

“We’ve done a lot of work to sensitize people about Ebola and they have understood,” she says. “But I think outside of Beni city, in the wider district, there is more to do.”

Ms Anoko agrees, emphasizing that it’s important for women to stay vigilant in Beni, while WHO duplicates what’s worked there with women in the new Ebola hot spots of Butembo and Komanda.

The fight against Ebola is still in full swing and Ms Anoko believes that strengthening the voice and involvement of women is key to containing the outbreak.

“I really want these women leaders at the senior management coordination table helping to drive the response,” she says.

Meanwhile, Mama Mwatatu continues her broadcasts, both reassuring and educating her listeners. When she is stumped by a question, she carefully notes it down and consults with WHO experts.

And if any of her listeners aren’t convinced by the radio broadcasts, she follows up with visits to their prayer groups and other women’s meetings.

“Yesterday, I didn’t have a broadcast and so I visited a number of towns,” Mama Mwatatu says. “I do this just so I can help because I am passionate about it in my heart.”

For Additional Information or to Request Interviews, Please contact:</s>Congo’s Ebola outbreak and refugee crisis create perfect storm for cross-border surge in the disease

PORTLAND, Ore. (Dec. 17, 2018) – Medical Teams International, the leading health organization providing screenings at refugee border crossings into Uganda, is preparing for Ebola to cross the border from Democratic Republic of Congo in the coming weeks.

The Ebola outbreak comes as ongoing violence pushes thousands of Congolese east toward Uganda. Rebel attacks have complicated efforts to curtail the deadly disease’s spread, leading to more than 420 confirmed cases and 225 deaths. As the outbreak continues to grow, new cases are now appearing in the large city of Butembo ahead of planned elections this month.

Medical Teams is actively monitoring the outbreak in DR Congo and preparing for the probability that cases of Ebola could cross the border. The organization has been training all staff on the protocols for spotting and reporting cases of Ebola and preventing its spread. The process is to isolate, report and refer suspected cases in coordination with the World Health Organization and Uganda’s Ministry of Health.

There have been no confirmed cases of Ebola in Uganda from the current outbreak through Dec. 17. Congo’s elections are scheduled for Dec. 23, however, and are expected to lead to further protests, violence and displacement. More than 100 armed groups operate in the country, particularly in the areas where reported cases of Ebola are highest.

Should Medical Teams confirm cases of Ebola crossing the border, the goal will be to isolate the cases and refer them for treatment.

At Uganda’s border crossings, Congolese refugees arriving directly from an area where there have been confirmed cases are screened and any person exhibiting symptoms of Ebola are isolated and held for observation. Suspected cases would then go to health facilities that have isolation units dedicated to Ebola and other types of hemorrhagic fevers.

Founded in 1979, Medical Teams International provides life-saving medical care for people in crisis, such as survivors of natural disasters and refugees. We care for the whole person—physical, emotional, social and spiritual. Daring to love like Jesus, we serve all people—regardless of religion, nationality, sex or race. Because every person—no matter where they are or how desperate their situation—matters.
The annual Thomson Reuters poll among aid agencies shows that the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with its war, hunger and Ebola outbreak, is perceived as the most neglected crisis of 2018. The Central African Republic, with its civil war, is a close second.