As Congo Disputes Scale of Crisis, Donors Give $530 Million
- European bloc pledges $95 million to help tackle situation
- Congolese government declined to attend donor conference
Refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo stand under a shelter with their food collected from the World Food Programme as it rains in the Kyangwali settlement in Kyangwali, Uganda on April 10, 2018.
Photographer: Jack Taylor/Getty Images EuropeAn international conference to raise funds for a humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo that was boycotted by its government yielded less than a third of the money needed to help millions of people.
The United Nations said the conference in Geneva drew about $530 million in pledges, below an estimated $1.7 billion needed to help more than 10 million people in the central African nation this year. $209 million had already been raised before the event on Friday, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The European Union, which co-hosted the conference, pledged $95 million in aid.