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Described by some as Africa’s first World War, the conflict in the DRC (formerly known as Zaire) has involved seven nations.

The central African country is bordered by numerous nations with whom it has had conflicts

There have been a number of complex reasons, including conflicts over basic resources such as water, access and control over rich minerals and other resources as well as various political agendas.

This has been fueled and supported by various national and international corporations and other regimes which have an interest in the outcome of the conflict.

Since the outbreak of fighting in August 1998, Some 5.4 million people have died

It has been the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II

The vast majority have actually died from non-violent causes such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition—all typically preventable in normal circumstances, but have come about because of the conflict

Although 19% of the population, children account for 47% of the deaths

Although many have returned home as violence has slightly decreased, there are still some 1.5 million internally displaced or refugees

Some 45,000 continue to die each month

These shocking figures would usually be more than enough to get media attention the world over, especially if it were to threaten influential nations in some way. Yet, perhaps as a cruel irony, influential nations in the world benefit from the vast resources coming from the DRC for which people are dying over.

Brief Background As with most conflicts in Africa, the current situation has much to do with the legacy of colonialism. From the violent 1885 Belgian imposition of colonial rule by King Leopold II who regarded it as his personal fiefdom and called it the Congo Free State (but apparently never once went there himself), millions have been killed. The murders have been grotesque, with chopped limbs and more, similar to what has been seen in Sierra Leone recently. After 75 years of colonial rule, the Belgians left very abruptly, relinquishing the political rights to the people of Congo in 1960. However, economic rights were not there for the country to flourish. This brief video summarizes the initial challenges the DRC faced after independence: Patrice Lumumba, January 11, 2007 As well as Belgium’s historical interests, the changing world after World War II meant Cold War interests also played its part. More evidence has emerged that when United States president Dwight Eisenhower met his national security advisers to talk about the situation in Congo two months after the June 1961 independence he said Lumumba, the country’s first prime minister, should be eliminated. Derek Ingram, 40 years on—Lumumba still haunts the West, Gemini News Service, 1 September 2000 Just a few months after Lumumba became head of state, he was overthrown with US and European support for a Cold War ally, Mobutu Sese Soko, (and for the rich resources that would then be available cheaply, rather than used for Congo’s own people and development.) U.S. policy toward Mobutu was rationalized on the grounds of fighting communism and Soviet influence in Africa, but the U.S. was clearly more concerned with securing its own interests in the region than helping foster a stable, secure, and peaceful future for the people of Central Africa. Lying at the center of the continent, Zaire could provide the U.S. with access to important resources, transportation routes, and political favors. Over the years, U.S. rhetoric changed slightly, placing greater emphasis on democratic reform of the regime and increased attention to human rights, but in reality policy continued to focus on promoting narrowly defined U.S. economic and strategic interests. … The U.S. prolonged the rule of Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Soko by providing more than $300 million in weapons and $100 million in military training. Mobutu used his U.S.-supplied arsenal to repress his own people and plunder his nation’s economy for three decades, until his brutal regime was overthrown by Laurent Kabila’s forces in 1997. When Kabila took power, the Clinton administration quickly offered military support by developing a plan for new training operations with the armed forces. William D. Hartung and Bridget Moix, Deadly Legacy: U.S. Arms to Africa and the Congo War, Arms Trade Resource Center, World Policy Institute, January 2000 As Stephen Weissman summarizes, in 2002, following an extensive parliamentary inquiry, the Belgian government assumed a portion of responsibility for Lumumba’s murder. But the US continued to deny allegations of its involvement. But a new analysis of declassified documents shows the US certainly played a role in Lumumba’s death. Back to top

Effects on the Environment and Wildlife The coltan trade and battle over the other minerals and resources has also affected DRC’s wildlife and environment. National Parks that house endangered gorillas and other animals are often overrun to exploit minerals and resources. Increasing poverty and hunger from the war, as well as more people moving into these areas to exploit the minerals results in hunting more wildlife, such as apes, for bush meat. Gorillas, for example are already endangered species. Wars over resources like this makes the situation even worse. Back to top

Does the World Care? I am convinced now … that the lives of Congolese people no longer mean anything to anybody. Not to those who kill us like flies, our brothers who help kill us or those you call the international community.… Even God does not listen to our prayers any more and abandons us. Salvatore Bulamuzi, a member of the Lendu community whose parents, two wives and five children were all killed in recent attacks on the town of Bunia, north-eastern DRC. (Quoted from Our brothers who help kill us —economic exploitation and human rights abuses in the east, a report from Amnesty International, AFR 62/010/2003, April 1, 2003.) Oxfam, mentioned above, criticized the international community in their 2000 report for still ignoring the DRC. When comparing with the response in Kosovo, they pointed out that [i]n 1999, donor governments gave just $8 per person in the DRC, while providing $207 per person in response to the UN appeal for the former Yugoslavia. While it is clear that both regions have significant needs, there is little commitment to universal entitlement to humanitarian assistance. (Emphasis added) Oxfam also noted that [t]he international community is essentially ignoring what has been deemed Africa’s first world war. The DRC remains a forgotten emergency. Falling outside of the media spotlight, and experiencing persistent shortfalls in pledged humanitarian aid, the population of the DRC has been largely abandoned to struggle for their own survival. Slowly though, in some mainstream media, there have been questions of why international efforts are not seen here, especially when compared to that given to Kosovo. An updated Oxfam report, while written back in 2001, also noted the following facts (some numbers may be out of date and have gotten worse, but the sheer scale of these numbers alone are shocking): More than two million people are internally displaced; of these, over 50 per cent are in eastern DRC. More than one million of the displaced have received absolutely no outside assistance.

It is estimated that up to 2.5 million people in DRC have died since the outbreak of the war, many from preventable diseases.

At least 37 per cent of the population, approximately 18.5 million people, have no access to any kind of formal health care.

16 million people have critical food needs.

There are 2,056 doctors for a population of 50 million; of these, 930 are in Kinshasa.

Infant mortality rates in the east of the country have in places reached 41 per cent per year.

Severe malnutrition rates among children under five have reached 30 per cent in some areas.

National maternal mortality is 1837 per 100,000 live births, one of the worst in the world. Rates as high as 3,000/100,000 live births have been recorded in eastern DRC.

DRC is ranked 152nd on the UNDP Human Development index of 174 countries: a fall of 12 places since 1992.

2.5 million people in Kinshasa live on less than US$1 per day. In some parts of eastern DRC, people are living on US$0.18 per day.

80 per cent of families in rural areas of the two Kivu Provinces have been displaced at least once in the past five years.

There are more than 10,000 child soldiers. Over 15 per cent of newly recruited combatants are children under the age of 18. A substantial number are under the age of 12.

Officially, between 800,000 and 900,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS.

40 per cent of health infrastructure has been destroyed in Masisi, North Kivu.

Only 45 per cent of people have access to safe drinking water. In some rural areas, this is as low as three per cent.

Four out of ten children are not in school. 400,000 displaced children have no access to education.

Of 145,000 km of roads, no more than 2,500km are asphalt. Back to top