DANIEL BASES, United Nations | Wednesday
HUNGER, disease, homelessness and abuse has left a staggering 16 million Congolese – more than a third of the population – with their lives in tatters as a result of the country’s protracted civil war, a UN official said this week.
Carolyn McAskie, the acting UN emergency relief coordinator, said the economy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had all but crumbled because of the war and decades of mismanagement and neglect in the Central African nation.
Food was in short supply, the health system had collapsed, some 200000 people barely survived on berries in rain forests while others were used as forced labour for competing armies, she told the UN Security Council in an open meeting.
”Thus far, all diplomatic and military efforts to end what has been described as ‘Africa’s First World War’ have not shown results, while the humanitarian crisis in the DRC remains one of the worst in the world, both in terms of intensity and magnitude,” McAskie said.
Fighting began in August 1998 with rival rebel groups backed by Rwanda and Ugandan soldiers trying to topple Congo President Laurent Kabila. He in turn is supported by troops from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia. The United Nations has fielded a small peacekeeping force of military observers but is waiting for the fighting to subside before dispatching troops.
In government-controlled areas, restrictive administrative procedures often prevent access by relief workers while in rebel-held regions security and fighting has kept aid from reaching hundreds of thousands of people.
Children have died in large numbers, particularly in the east where rebel activity is strongest. McAskie cited a study by the International Rescue Committee, which concluded that up to 600000 children under five, may have died during warfare in the east, either through violence, epidemics or malnutrition.
She said random violence against civilian and flagrant human rights violations were prevalent throughout the country.
”Both government authorities and rebel movements have used the war as an excuse for arbitrary arrests and detentions, extra-judiciary executions, widespread death sentences and the harassment of journalists, human rights activists and political opponents,” she told the 15-member body.
McAskie implored the international community to be generous in humanitarian assistance and not let politics prevent funding emergency aid, which this year has amounted to $43.6m of the $71.4m requested. Most of it was for food, with health and child protection programs receiving little money. – Reuters