By Henoch Derbew
9 January 2010 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Since its independence in 1960, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has survived turbulent decades of political conflict. More recently, the former Belgian colony continues to recover from “Africa’s World War” of 1998 to 2003 – a conflict sparked by retreating Rwandan genocidaires and which drew in seven other countries and various rebel militias, leading to the highest death toll of any conflict since World War II. Despite the end of the war, the 45,000 people – half of which are children under five – continue to die on a monthly basis, most because of preventable diseases and malnutrition.
Children in a camp for internally displaced persons in Katanga Province, DRC. Photo courtesy of The World Food Program.
Today, many Congolese remain internally displaced, hungry, and in desperate need of health care from a crumbling, or more often nonexistent, health infrastructure. Recovery efforts have always been hard for successive Congolese governments. The current government under President Joseph Kabila is struggling to help but the state lacks adequate funds and resources. For example, while the World Health Organization’s Commission for Macroeconomics and Health calls for spending a minimum of $35 per person annually for a citizen’s health in least developed countries, the Congolese government pays $15.
In addition, even more people are facing violence from groups like the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) – which is moving relatively easily through northern DRC, Sudan, Uganda, and the Central African Republic – and guerilla organizations in the east that continue to destroy property and disrupt livelihoods.
Organizations such as the UN are therefore trying to assist the government in delivering vital services and maintaining security through groups like the World Food Programme (WFP) and its mission in the DRC (MONUC, which stands for the French title Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies en République démocratique du Congo).
According to the WFP, 74 percent of the DRC’s 68 million people are undernourished. To help, WFP aims to support at least 3 million “food insecure” Congolese, many of whom have also suffered from the recent global rise in food prices. The WFP also plans to work with other groups on the ground to support health initiatives, especially against HIV/AIDS, and with vulnerable people, including ex-child soldiers and survivors of the widespread sexual violence in conflict zones.
The WFP’s Country Director for the DRC recently explained the importance of security which has been difficult to ensure and at times has hampered aid efforts. Concentrated in the east, the 20,000-strong MONUC – whose mandate includes assisting aid groups and government forces to maintain stability and security– has been able to help distribute and protect food, but has struggled to maintain order. In addition to protecting civilians, MONUC has also been under pressure to address allegations of extra-judicial violence by Congolese forces.
Though security is important, the WFP’s Public Information Officer for the DRC Stephanie Savariaud told MediaGlobal that the WFP continues to work “in all areas where vulnerable people need food assistance [through] eleven sub-offices throughout DRC.” Savariaud added that the main problem facing the WFP is the country’s lack of infrastructure, which complicates locating displaced people and distributing food. In eastern Congo, for example, Savariaud explained that rainy season makes local roads “impassable.”
Additional problems for the DRC exist in the northwest, an area often ignored by the media and aid groups, where inter-ethnic fighting in November killed 270 and displaced 130,000 – 84,000 of whom crossed the border into the Republic of Congo. By late December, a local DRC NGO distributed 50 tons of WFP food supplies to thousands of those internally displaced in the DRC with MONUC’s assistance. The WFP is willing to assist people on both sides of the border, but Savariaud also pointed out to MediaGlobal that “harvest activities have been affected as people fled villages to take refuge in the forest,” making the already unstable food security situation worse.
Further international support to deal with the DRC’s humanitarian crisis on a larger scale has been difficult to secure as Kabila’s government is still struggling to pick up the pieces following the war. At the root of today’s crisis are the huge country’s valuable resources – including coltan, a vital ingredient in mobile phones and computers – being used to finance conflicts instead of aiding development. By occupying mineral-rich areas, rebel groups sell these resources at bargain prices to large global firms to fund their wars. This leaves little international motivation to stop the conflict. Thus, though nominally supported by various African leaders as well as most Western governments who often refer to the DRC as “relatively stable,” millions of lives continue to be affected as whole towns are deserted and few Congolese are willing return home.
