The Democratic Republic of Congo, which has suffered from back-to-back wars and years of corruption, is home to the world’s deadliest humanitarian crisis, according to a study published by Britain’s leading medical journal.

|TOP|The study, published in the Jan. 7 issue of The Lancet, shows that nearly 4 million people have died between 1998-2004, with 38,000 people dying each month – a monthly mortality rate 40 percent higher than the average for sub-Saharan Africa.

Statistics are based on a survey conducted by the International Rescue Committee of 19,500 households throughout Congo between April and July 2004 by health ministry workers and staffs of the aid group.

“It is a sad indictment of us all that seven years into this crisis ignorance about its scale and impact is almost universal, and that international engagement remains completely out of proportion to humanitarian need,” IRC’s health director Rick Brennan said in a Lancet press release.

Study results also show that there are 2.1 deaths per 1,000 people or about 1,200 fatalities per day compared with a continental average of 1.5 deaths per 1,000.

According to the report, the majority of deaths resulted from preventable diseases rather than directly from war violence. Malaria, diarrhea, respiratory infections and malnutrition topped the list, as a result of health services either being cut off because of the war or reduced because of limited access.

|AD|“Less than two percent of the deaths were directly due to violence,” Brennan pointed out. “However, if the effects of violence – such as the insecurity that limits access to health care facilities – were removed, mortality rates would fall to almost normal levels.”

Mortality rates were highest in Congo’s eastern provinces, which were formerly controlled by several different rebel groups and where many groups still reign. The eastern provinces have 93 percent higher death rates than the sub-Saharan Africa average.

"Rich donor nations are miserably failing the people of (Congo), even though every few months the mortality equivalent of two southeast Asian tsunamis plows through its territory," the study said.

Congo’s government is struggling to reestablish authority in the country before the elections expected later this year, the first in decades.

The nation has a 60 million population – about a quarter in size of the United States’ and the third largest among Africa’s countries.

U.K.-based Christian Aid has several offices in DRC and works with 24 partner organisations focusing on food production, supporting small businesses, HIV/AIDS work, peace and reconciliation projects, rebuilding lives, and rehabilitation of displaced people.

Other Christian organisations involved in helping the DRC include World Vision, World Concern, World Relief, and Salvation Army.

"The persistently high mortality in ... Congo is deeply disturbing and indicates that both national and international efforts to address the crisis remain grossly inadequate," the report said.

"Improvements in security and increased humanitarian assistance are urgently needed."







Michelle Vu
Christian Today Correspondent