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Congo (DR) conflict

Last reviewed: 03-06-2009

CONGO CONFLICTS DEFY PEACE


Democratic Republic of Congo's five-year war officially ended in 2003, but the country is still regularly listed as the site of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Congo should be rich from its gold, diamonds and minerals, yet millions of its people suffer from a lethal combination of disease and hunger caused by ongoing conflict and displacement.

  • 5.4 million dead since 1998 from war-related violence, hunger and disease
  • Congo is the size of western Europe
  • At least 40,000 women and girls have been raped

    The country formerly known as Zaire now has a democratic government - led by President Joseph Kabila, a former guerrilla - but insecurity continues in the remote, resource-rich provinces near the eastern border. The world's largest peacekeeping mission - a U.N. force of 17,000 soldiers and police - struggles to prevent violence and protect the population of almost 60 million.

    About 5.4 million people in this vast country have died from war-related hunger and disease since 1998, according to aid agency International Rescue Committee, which calculated in 2007 that as many as 45,000 people were dying every month.

    "There are few places on earth where the gap between humanitarian needs and available resources is as large - or as lethal - as in Congo," said Jan Egeland, when he was U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

    KEY FACTS


    Deaths
    5.4 million since 1998 due to war-related violence, disease and hunger (International Rescue Committee)
    Rape
    At least 40,000 survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Congo
    (U.N. World Health Organisation, 2005)
    More than 2,200 cases registered in the province of North Kivu from January to June 2008 alone (Congo Advocacy Coalition)
    Uprooted by violence
    1.4 million people internally displaced
    (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, Nov 2008)
    370,374 Congolese refugees
    (UNHCR, 2007)
    Natural wealth
    18 natural resources fuel conflict in Congo today: bauxite/aluminium, cadmium, cassiterite, coal, cobalt, copper, coltan, diamonds, gas, gold, iron ore, lead, manganese, oil, silver, timber, uranium and zinc (Source: Global Witness)

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