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CIAO Focus, January / February 2008:
Humanitarian Crisis in the Congo
Source: United Nations
War, disease and mass starvation have claimed 5.4 million lives over the past 10 years in the Democratic Republic of Congo according to a recently published study by the International Rescue Committee.
The report claims that Congo's war--which lasted from 1998 to 2003--and its aftermath have caused more deaths than any other global conflict since WWII.
For five years government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe fought against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Although the war nominally ended in 2003, fighting continued in the eastern portions of the country where the International Crisis Group reported that 1,000 people were dying each day from war-related causes.
In January 2008 the government signed a peace agreement with the rebels aimed at ending the suffering in the east. The treaty gives United Nations peacekeeping forces a mandate to set up a buffer zone in that part of the country.
This month CIAO examines the humanitarian crisis in Congo.
From the CIAO Database:
Congo: Consolidating the Peace
Katanga: The Congo’s Forgotten Crisis
Securing Congo’s Elections: Lessons from the Kinshasa Showdown
The Congo war and the prospects of state formation: Rwanda and Uganda compared
Outside Sources: *
Country Profile: Democratic Republic of Congo (BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1076399.stm
The Permanent Mission of the Republic of the Congo to the United Nations
http://www2.un.int/public/Congo/
World Health Organization: Congo
http://www.who.int/countries/cog/en/
African Studies Center: Democratic Republic of Congo Page (University of Pennsylvania)
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Country_Specific/Zaire.html
Human Development Reports: Congo (UNDP)
http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_COG.html
Mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo: The Ongoing Crisis
http://www.theirc.org/resources/2007/2006-7_congomortalitysurvey.pdf
* Outside links are not maintained. For broken outside links, CIAO recommends the Way Back Machine.