The World Problems Index

Conflict

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Central AfricaConflictSince 1996Curatedlow confidence

Eastern DRC Conflict

Decades of overlapping armed conflict in a mineral-rich region, with mass displacement and one of the highest excess-death tolls of the modern era.

Severity score

72.0

Critical · default weighting

Trajectory

Worsening

What this is

Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has experienced near-continuous armed conflict since the 1990s, involving over 100 armed groups, neighbouring state involvement and competition over cobalt, coltan, gold and tin. The cumulative excess death toll from the Congo wars and their aftermath is one of the highest of any conflict since the Second World War, though the widely cited 5.4 million figure is methodologically contested. The M23 resurgence has driven renewed mass displacement.

Score breakdown

Loss of life

90

Direct and attributable mortality, normalised across annual and cumulative tolls.

Lives negatively impacted

86

People displaced, injured, food-insecure, exposed or otherwise materially harmed.

Financial cost

40

Direct damage, lost output and health-system spend attributable to the event.

Environmental impact

50

Emissions, habitat and biodiversity loss, contamination and irreversibility.

Trajectory

80

Whether the situation is escalating, and how much worse it is plausibly getting.

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