Conflict ‘displaces more in DR Congo than Syria’

The number of people displaced by conflict inside the Democratic Republic of Congo last year was higher than that in Syria or Iraq, according to research by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

The Democratic Republic of Congo had a spike of 922,000 new displacements caused by conflict last year, compared with 824,000 and Iraq with 659,000, the NRC’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Center said.

Researchers from the Norwegian Refugee Council counted over 922,000 people who were forced to flee their homes inside DRC in 2016.

NRC secretary-general Jan Egeland told BBC that “it is surprisingly not Syria nor Iraq” at the top of the list.

Mr Egeland said it was a “total myth that they [people fleeing violence] come all to Europe, they come all to America. Most people are displaced within their own country”.

Source: BBC