Congo leader says U.N. aid unneeded

GENEVA — Congo on Friday took the extraordinary step of boycotting an international conference that reaped hundreds of millions of dollars to help its people, saying the Central African country’s humanitarian crisis has been exaggerated. It later said some aid groups that accept the money would have their activities banned.

The snub of the United Nations-led pledging conference by President Joseph Kabila’s government — which one U.N. official called “unfortunate” — came amid differing views about the needs of a sprawling country where millions of people are displaced and hungry during a brewing political crisis.

Congo’s government later said that it will ban the work of aid organizations that receive conference funding from countries that have sanctioned Congolese figures. The foreign affairs minister, Leonard She Okitundu, also said his country should have been involved in organizing the gathering.

“We cannot come as a guest,” he said.

The event raised $528 million in pledges. U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said he was “pleased” and surprised the figure was so high but said he was unable to immediately specify whether it was entirely new funds. Donors this year had already pledged $209 million toward a U.N. appeal for $1.7 billion to help about 10.5 million people in Congo in 2018.

Congo’s government has insisted the conference hurts the country’s image and has downplayed the extent of the widespread hunger and displacement.

Its ambassador to the U.N. in New York, Ignace Gata Mavita, told the Security Council last month that the U.N.’s crisis level for his country was “excessive” and “exaggerated.”

Many speakers from 53 U.N. member states on Friday didn’t address the elephant in the room: Congo’s absence.