Photo Credit: Refugees International/ Sarah Martin
04/28/2005

With an estimated 300,000 refugees and 2.3 million internally displaced people forced from their homes as a result of armed conflict, systematic killings and human rights atrocities over the last eleven years, the emergency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is on a scale matched only by Sudan, yet the emergency is virtually unknown among the public in the industrialized world. According to the 2004 mortality survey conducted by the International Rescue Committee, between January 2003 and April 2004 more than 1,000 people died every day and almost half of the casualties were among children under five. Approximately 98 percent of these deaths were caused by disease and malnutrition, byproducts of a war that destroyed much of the health care system and economy. Yet the world’s humanitarian response in 2004 was a total of $188 million in aid or a scant $3.23 per person. In the eastern provinces, where insecurity has impeded access to humanitarian aid, death from infectious disease and hunger is highest.

RI calls for the governments of the G-8 to continue to support UN peacekeeping troops and increase assistance for the training of the Congolese Army to bring security to the region. At the same time, donors must utilize the extensive network of Congolese non-governmental organizations that exist in parts of the eastern DRC to reach isolated communities, while increasing the capacity of the Congolese government and civil-society organizations in other areas, such as Ituri. Improving and maintaining security and increasing support for simple, proven and cost-effective interventions such as basic medical care, immunizations and clean water, would save hundreds of thousands of lives in Congo.

Read more about Refugees International's recent work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Read more about the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.