AFRICANEWS

DR Congo

War brings suffering to millions in DR Congo

Millions of people in rebel held eastern Congo are facing starvation after humanitarian agencies fled the area due to insecurity.

The United Nations World Food Programme has called for emergency relief operations to feed more than two million people in the areas currently under occupation by Rwandan and Ugandan troops of the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to recent surveys by the WFP, up to 21 per cent of the population is suffering from severe malnutrition in the eastern province of North Kivu that has been under rebel troops since the war begun two years ago. "The numbers of people who need WFP assistance has nearly tripled over the past year," said WFP.

The WFP alert on the emergence of famine-like conditions in eastern Congo is a reflection of the total breakdown of normal economic life and living conditions that have taken place in eastern Congo since the August 1998 invasion of eastern Congo by the armed forces of neighbouring Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi. The accumulated statistics on the living conditions and demographic status point to an escalating cycle of violence and deprivation that have brought the population to the brink of annihilation.

Estimated statistical figures, gathered primarily by the UN and various non-governmental organizations and relief agencies, indicate the following: 600,000 Congolese children have died as a result of the war from malnutrition, murder, and disease caused by the war. This is out of the 1.7 million people that humanitarian agencies estimate to have perished in the tragedy as of September 2000. Others have put the figure to a high two million people. Another 1.8 million people are internally displaced while another five million people have fled as refugees to nearby countries. Most of the internally displaced are said to be living in the country's dense forests, away from their homes, with no means of sustenance at all. In total, about 16 million people have been displaced by the two-year-old conflict pitting armies from half a dozen countries and various militia groups.

The WFP alert on conditions in North Kivu is corroborated by the report on conditions in South Kivu of the non-governmental organization, Action Against Hunger-USA, released toward the end of last year entitled A Mosaic of Misery - The Humanitarian Situation in the Territories of Uvira and Fizi, South Kivu.

The report paints a picture of a complete breakdown of social services, including minimal medical services and food distribution. According to the document, more than a third of the population of the districts of Uvira and Fizi are displaced either internally or in refugee camps in Tanzania. The situation has been worsened by the fact that both territories are suffering the third consecutive drought, destroying those crops that were planted, while an epidemic disease of foot and mouth has affected the cattle. "The health care system has collapsed. Thousands of severely malnourished were being assisted by Action Against Hunger in feeding centres until most of those were looted or closed down because it was too dangerous for the population to get there and for the relief workers to run them" says the report.

"It is likely that famine conditions will soon become apparent," it added. Over the course of the war, the report documents, the relief agencies and non-governmental organizations that were delivering some level of services have mostly withdrawn. In Uvira territory, only six humanitarian organisations remain from the 16 that were present before the war. In Nundu and Fizi, it is Caritas that has remained out of 26 that were active there before the war. And in Lemera territory, there are no relief agencies operating at all. The UN has totally withdrawn its presence from the area. There are no feeding centres at all in three out of four territories of South Kivu, the only ones being in Uvira.

As of June 2000, there were no functioning health centres or hospitals or clinics remaining in the districts of Lemera and Fizi and no health posts in any district. In the entire area of nearly 200,000 original residents, there is only 1 hospital and 39 health centres. These centres are now being staffed primarily by untrained and inexperienced "nurses."

The withdrawal of relief agencies and NGOs is a result of lack of security, as the region is host to multiple internal fighting forces and foreign armies. The result is that the majority of the population is totally inaccessible to any relief, and the status of these people is unknown. The result of demographic work shows that large sections of the population are "missing." Based on a 3 percent growth rate applied to the figures from the 1991 census, the territories of Uvira and Fizi should have a total population of 756,350.

The results of the National Immunisation Days (NID) used by the Provincial Health Office in July 2000 show "that the population in Uvira health zone is higher than the theoretical population. The only explanation for this phenomenon is the displaced people who moved from other areas to the relative safety of the Ruzizi Plain and Uvira town. In the other three zones, the results of the NID tend to show that a part of the population is missing. In Nundu, only 39 percent of the population is accessible for humanitarian assistance - that is present.

In Fizi, the local health staff reported total population significantly lower than the provincial Health Office. If the local figures are taken, then only 40 percent of the population reported by the PHO is present. Further, the total population reported for Fizi of 23,147 in comparison to the 1991-based theoretical population of 178,405 shows that only 13 per cent of the of the 1991-based "theoretical" population is present.

Death rates are correspondingly high. Malaria, respiratory infections, diarrhoea, and malnutrition are the major causes of death, aside from overt acts of violence. Action Against Hunger recently conducted two mortality surveys in the accessible areas of Uvira and Lemera. These revealed a death rate of 2.45 children under the age of five dying per day out of every 10,000 children in that age group; in Uvira the death rate was 2.63 per day. The World Health Organisation considers 2 deaths per day to trigger a state of alert. A death rate of 2.50 per day indicates that 10 percent of all children under the age of five will die in one year.

These statistics were compiled only from areas in which people were accessible to relief agencies. In inaccessible areas, it must be presumed that the death rates are far higher. In fact, the report by Action Against Hunger notes that at feeding centres, "many of the admissions are adults. When correlated with the high under five mortality rates, this may indicate that many of the children below five years old have died." That conclusion is coherent with another report of the International Rescue Committee, which noted the lack of the presence of young children throughout eastern Congo.

In short, in this war in which the world continues to watch as foreign troops invade and steal the wealth of the Congo "for reasons of security," Two million Congolese - at least half of them children - have died without one iota of effective concern from the international community for their rights or safety.

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