The wars that have wracked the Democratic
Republic of the Congo since 1996, killing well
over 5 million people (International Rescue
Committee, 1/08) in what may be the deadliest
conflict since World War II, are officially over.
A peace agreement was signed in 2002, and general elections were held in 2006.
But conflict and the humanitarian crisis
continue. The most recent survey (IRC, 1/08)
estimated that 45,000 people are dying each month
from conflict-related causes (primarily hunger
and disease), nearly the same shocking rate as
during the war itself. And with the recent
flare-up of violence in Congoâs volatile east,
things donât seem to be getting any better.
To put the death rate in perspective, at the peak
of the Darfur crisis, the conflict-related death
rate there was less than a third of the
Congoâs, and by 2005 it had dropped to less
than 4,000 per month (CRED, 5/26/05). The United
Nations has estimated some 300,000 may have died
in total as a result of the years of conflict in
Darfur (CRED, 4/24/08, SSRC.org, 3/25/09); the
same number die from the Congo conflict every six and a half months.
And yet, in the New York Times, which covers the
Congo more than most U.S. outlets, Darfur has
consistently received more coverage since it
emerged as a media story in 2004 (Extra!,
12/08). The Times gave Darfur nearly four times
the coveragge it gave the Congo in 2006, while
Congolese were dying of war-related causes at
nearly 10 times the rate of those in Darfur.
<http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3777>Link
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Posted By johannes to
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2009/07/congo-ignored-not-forgotten-when-5.htm>monochrom
at 7/23/2009 11:33:00 PM
