Congo: The World's Deadliest Emergency

The War

In 2000, the NY Times reported the war in Congo had cost 100,000 lives. Based on their work on the ground, the International Rescue Committee knew this was a gross underestimate. When they set out to get an accurate number, they discovered the grave reality: The Congo is by far the world's deadliest conflict since World War II. 5.4 million people have died since 1998.

38,000 have continued to die every month. That is an Asian Tsunami every 6.5 months. 1200 people die every day. A September 11 every 2.5 days. Nearly half of these deaths are children under the age of five.

The conflict in Congo began with the conclusion of the Rwandan genocide. The Interahamwe, the Hutu militias responsible for the massacre of 1 million in Rwanda in a period of four months, were pushed over the border into the Congo where they set up camp and began terrorizing the Congolese people.

Various militias or government forces were sent in to fight the Interahamwe, then each other. It erupted into what has been termed "Africa's First World War". The UN has accused all nations involved of using the war as a cover for looting diamonds, coltan, gold, and other resources from this mineral rich region.

Though a peace accord was reached in 2003, and the first democratic elections in over 40 years have just taken place, the conflict continues to cause a complete shut down of vast regions of the country, leaving civilians to fend for themselves against brutal attacks, torture, looting, rape and murder, as well as deprivation of the most basic conditions necessary for life.

Of the more than 38,000 war-related deaths occurring every month in Congo, only .4% nationally are from violence. Security issues have severely limited access of humanitarian relief and basic services, resulting in tens of thousands of "excess deaths" every month, primarily from disease and malnutrition.

In areas the UN has maintained a presence, "excess deaths" drop dramatically. Additionally, with a major upscaling in humanitarian aid, simple, cost-effective interventions can prevent these deaths. International involvement and monitoring can serve to end the economic exploitation and looting many see as the root of the conflict.

With Congo's vast resources, an end to the conflict could transform this long neglected nation to a major stabilizing influence on all of its nine neighboring countries. "Congo represents the hope of Africa", Time Magazine wrote in June 2006.

As Anneke Van Woudenberg of Human Rights Watch put it, "If you want peace in Africa, then you have to deal with the biggest country right at it's heart."

Women in Congo

Women in the Congo carry the heaviest of burdens. They have been gang raped. Tortured. Watched their husbands and children murdered in front of them. Forced to flee their homes. They are internally displaced persons with no means of supporting themselves or their living children. Many have watched two, four, even seven children die from preventable illnesses.

But they are also survivors. They take in orphans. They build businesses. They are rebuilding their communities and country.

Children in Congo

The war has claimed the lives of nearly 2 million children.  Child death rates in the eastern Congo are astronomical.

• Children are targets of violence.  Often, children are tortured and murdered in militia attacks. They are also abducted and forced into sexual slavery or to become child soldiers.

• The vast majority of child deaths are preventable, not due to direct violence. Starvation and curable disease, direct repercussions of the war, continue to take the highest toll on children.

With a mother's participation in Women for Women's program, she gains self sufficiency and the ability to support her children.  Her kids get enough to eat.  If they are sick, she can afford medical care.  She even has enough to pay their school fees. Simply put, with infant mortality rates as high as they are in the eastern Congo, when a woman is sponsored, it very well may save many children's lives.

That's a great way to spend $27 a month!

For more information, read For Congo's Mothers, Unceasing Loss.

 

 

The information on this page is excerpted from Run for Congo Women and Women for Women International.