AT least 2.5 million people have died since August 1998 as a result of civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to preliminary results of a study to be released early next week. The study by the International Rescue Committee, a New-York based refugee relief organisation, examined five provinces in the eastern part of the central African nation earlier this year and found that there has been an estimated 2.5 million deaths since the outbreak of fighting. A similar IRC survey last year estimated 1.7 million deaths, the overwhelming majority from disease and malnutrition. – AFP
03