Example of what's going on in just one country of Africa. Saddam was smart enough not to let his people starve.
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Disease, malnutrition kill millions in Congo
By Samson Mulugeta
Newsday
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Cloaked in the anonymity of the Congo jungle and caught in a 5-year-old civil war, 3.3 million people have perished from easily preventable diseases, malnutrition and violence, according to a New York-based humanitarian group.
About 15 percent of the victims died violent deaths while the rest died of disease and malnutrition across the vast regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, the International Rescue Committee said yesterday.
Children born in the Congo have the highest mortality rate in the world, according to the survey, and there is zero population growth in the eastern part of the country.
"This is the world's worst humanitarian disaster currently going on," said Michael Despines, an IRC spokesman who just finished a six-year tour of duty in eastern Congo. "More than a thousand people are dying every day, and the sad part is that no one is paying attention."
Civil war has wracked Congo since 1998 when the genocide in neighboring Rwanda spilled across its borders, led to the toppling of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and spiraled into what became known as "Africa's First World War."
Partly drawn by Congo's enormous natural wealth — minerals and timber — six neighboring nations sent troops backing the government or various rebel factions. All the foreign forces, with the exception of Uganda, withdrew last year after the signing of a peace deal brokered by South Africa.
Under the agreement, President Joseph Kabila will stay in power until elections are held two years from now. The peace deal has held, but violence still afflicts the country. Last week, the United Nations reported that more than 900 people were killed in inter-ethnic violence near the northeastern town of Ituri.
Soldiers from the neighboring nation of Uganda have made forays near Ituri in support of militias from the Lendu ethnic group, against their rivals, the Hema ethnic group, according to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group.
"The Ugandan forces have responsibility to prevent such killings by their own troops and their allies," said Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to Human Rights Watch. Ugandan officials have denied any responsibility for the massacre.
The reach of the central government in Kinshasa, the capital in the west, does not extend into rebel-held areas such as Ituri in the east. Five thousand troops from a United Nations peacekeeping force are in the country, but they are spread thin in the vast nation.
A Congolese chief said his wife and three young children were slaughtered "like cows" along with hundreds of other Ituri province villagers last week by rival tribesmen armed with machetes and guns.
What may be the worst atrocity in the civil war occurred a day after a final peace deal was signed by leading parties involved in the conflict.
Survivors, many with deep cuts to their heads and limbs wrapped in blood-soaked bandages, said the dawn attack on Drodro town and 14 nearby villages began with gunshots and screams.
"They slaughtered my people," said Kpadhingo Londri, a local Hema chief.
Londri, who was not at home at the time, said the attackers were Lendu militia.
Drodro's population is made up mainly of Hema.
Zale Neema, 28, a mother of five, ran into nearby woods, chased by machete-wielding attackers.
Her right arm was slashed and had to be amputated. Nearly 50 other survivors are being treated for gunshot wounds and deep cuts to the head, neck and back.
"I tried to run but they caught up with me. They told me in Lendu to pray before I see the Messiah," Neema said from her hospital bed.
Three of Neema's children are still missing, and her sister, the mother of a 3-month-old baby, was killed in the attack.
U.N. investigators saw 20 mass graves over the weekend.
Based on reports from surrounding villages, local priests said more than 900 bodies had been buried in mass graves across the area. The Ugandan army, now patrolling the area, put the death toll at between 350 and 400. The figures could not be independently confirmed.
Information from Reuters and The Associated Press is included in this report. |
