Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo top the list of the world's most neglected displacement crises, the Norwegian Refugee Council aid group said on Thursday.

Sudan, which since 2023 has been ravaged by conflict, has more than nine million internally displaced people, the prominent aid organisation said in a statement.

A further four million Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries and nearly 19.5 million people there are also suffering from hunger, the NRC said.

"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," NRC chief Jan Egeland said.

‘World’s failure’

The Democratic Republic of Congo, where an Ebola epidemic has added turmoil to the east of the country ravaged by decades of conflict, appears on NRC's list for the 10th year in a row.

In 2025, only 27.4 percent of the funding needed for DR Congo has been secured, leaving more than 21 million people in need, according to the NRC.

"This is a testament to the world's failure to respond to crises that are not regarded as strategically important for rich countries," Egeland said in the NRC statement.

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

The NGO's list is based on three criteria: lack of humanitarian funding, lack of media coverage, and lack of political will within the international community.

Several African countries - Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Mali and Nigeria - have featured on NRC's list six or more times, pointing to "a systemic pattern of deliberate neglect", NRC said.

The 10 most neglected crises for 2025 are Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Honduras, Ecuador, Cameroon, Nigeria and Mozambique, spanning three continents and tens of millions of people.