Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Politics

EU Urges Congo to Attend Aid Talks as Conflict Imperils Millions

  • Congolese government has declined to attend April conference
  • Fighting in central African nation has left millions in need
Recent conflict in Congo’s east and center has forced millions to flee their homes

Recent conflict in Congo’s east and center has forced millions to flee their homes

Photographer: John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images

The European Union’s aid chief urged the Democratic Republic of Congo to take part in a donor meeting on tackling a humanitarian crisis in the vast central African country that’s left more than 13 million people in need of aid.

Congo’s government, which has been under pressure to hold elections that would see President Joseph Kabila leave power, has said it won’t participate in the April 13 donor conference and rejects United Nations’ estimates of the scale of the crisis. Recent conflict in Congo’s east and center has forced millions to flee their homes, caused widespread hunger and stirred echoes of the country’s 1998-2003 ruinous war.