Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 04/2009

Disaster in the DRC: Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis in North Kivu

Go Funai, Catherine Morris

December 2008

United States Institute of Peace

Abstract

This USIPeace Briefing discusses the resurgent violence that left hundreds dead, thousands displaced and millions destitute in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The report, by Go Funai and Catherine Morris, highlights the meaning of "human security" in a chronic conflict zone, informal lending mechanisms among local ethnically homogenous communities and the role of neighboring African states in contributing to conflict and stability in the DRC.