Displaced people fleeing the fighting in North Kivu
(Photo: © Jane Some/IRIN)

Greed and the struggle for power are again threatening to destabilise the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A vast country with immense economic resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was still recovering from its last civil war, is now witnessing new outbreaks of fighting.

The previous five-year conflict, 1998-2003, pitted government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.

It claimed an estimated three million lives, either as a direct result of the fighting or because of disease and malnutrition.

Now, despite a peace deal and the formation of a transitional power-sharing government in 2003, the threat of civil war is again imminent.  Against a backdrop of political power struggles and violent unrest, its eastern regions are torn by violence.

The leader of the Mai Mai militia in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has just rejected a government ultimatum to disarm.

The fighting in eastern Congo has displaced more than 370,000 people since the start of 2007, and, last weekend, thousands more were on the move, trying to escape fresh outbreaks of violence.

A spokeswoman in North Kivu for Monuc, the UN's peacekeeping force in the DRC, described what she saw of the flight of the displaced as 'horrendous'.  "The humanitarian consequences of whatever is happening there," she added, "are very serious."

The present fighting has, like the civil war, economic as well as political roots.

Then, as now, the fighting was and is fuelled by attempts to annexe the country's vast mineral wealth, with all sides taking advantage of the anarchy to plunder natural resources.  The DRC's main assets are diamonds, copper, coffee, cobalt and crude oil.

The killing, meanwhile, threatens to turn the country into a battlefield again.

Civil war has long been part of the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo.  After independence in 1960, the country immediately experienced an army mutiny and an attempt at secession by its mineral-rich Province of Katanga.

A year later, troops loyal to army chief Joseph Mobutu seized and killed its Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba.

In 1965, Mobutu seized power, later renaming the country Zaire.  Under his regime, Zaire became synonymous with corruption.

Mobutu was toppled from power in 1997 by a military campaign from the east, conducted in part by Laurent Kabila, the present President's father.

Joseph Kabila became Congo's President when his father was assassinated in 2001.  He gained a mandate through the ballot box to lead the DRC in an election in 2006.  He became Africa's youngest head of state.

The historic presidential election was intended to bring a new era of stability after years of war, dictatorship and chaos.  International monitors generally approved the election.

Mr Kabila, a former guerrilla fighter who participated in nearly 10 years of war that devastated the country, promised to rule by consensus to try to heal the scars of Congo's many conflicts.

Kabila has enjoyed the support of Western governments such as the US and France, regional allies such as South Africa and Angola, and, significantly, businessmen and mining magnates who have signed multi-million dollar deals under his rule.

Despite coup attempts and sporadic violence, a fragile peace has held since the formal end of the war.  But the government in Kinshasa hasn't much control over large parts of the country.  As is evident at the moment, tension remains high in the east.

Moreover, the lot of the DRC's 56 million citizens is not greatly improved.  The life expectancy for men is 42 years and for women is 44 years.  Moreover, a European think tank reported in 2005 that 1,000 people were dying every day from war-related causes, including disease, hunger and violence.

It is a cruel twist of fate that the Congolese, who enjoy a pitiful average Gross National Income of just US $120 (World Bank, 2006), are having their lives riven yet again by military factions' ambitions to monopolise their country's natural resources and use them as leverage to power.

CMS partner the Bishop of Bukavu Diocese in North Kivu recently contacted CMS to update us on the situation in his area:

"Receive our greetings in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.  I want to confirm that the news you are hearing in the media is true.

"There is daily, ongoing war between the troops of General Nkunda Batware, a rebel fighting against the army of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and army troops.

"The war is located in different areas: Goma, Rutshuru, Masisi, Walikale, Kirotsche, etc, in the northern part of our diocese (covering the Archdeaconries of Goma and Rutshuru).

"The situation is bad.  People are being killed and wounded; women and children are being raped; and a large number displaced from their own shelters and all their belongings looted.

"It's reported that 500,000 refugees are in Kiwandja City, about 800, 000 in Mugunga Camp, and others in Nyamirima -- among them, many Anglican believers.

"These people need urgent assistance in the form of medicine, clothes, food, blankets, soaps, salt and kitchen tools.  Unfortunately, the Church of Bukavu is presently in no position to help them.

"So, we need every kind of help for these people, who are suffering now.

"We continue to rely on your prayers and help."

Yours sincerely,

The Rt Rev Sylvestre Bahati Bali-Busane

If you would like to contribute to helping displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, please e-mail chris.woo@cms-uk.org for more information.

Published: 5:32 PM :: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 :: 562 views :: 0 Comments :: Featured News Stories, Mid-Africa Region, Advocacy, Disaster relief, NEWS