Congo

A humanitarian disaster unfolds

Nov 15th 2007 | RUTSHURU
From The Economist print edition

One year after the Congolese elections, civilians flee renewed fighting in the east

AMONG the crowd of displaced civilians clamouring for food stood a young boy. He had fled his village and was left with little but a filthy T-shirt that read: “I'm voting for Kabila, the peacemaker”.

A year ago, Congo did indeed hold elections that many had feared would never take place. They were won by the incumbent president, Joseph Kabila, largely thanks to support in the east, which he promised to pacify. But for the people of North Kivu, an eastern province at the heart of a decade of war, the aftermath of the voting has brought anything but peace. Some 500,000 civilians have fled their homes, out of a total population of about 4m, to escape the growing fighting between the army, rebels and militias. In the past two months alone, more than 160,000 people have been displaced.
Making comparisons between humanitarian crises may not always be fair or useful. But those dealing with the emergency in Kivu are starting to do so. “The situation at the moment in North Kivu is worse than Darfur,” says Sylvie van den Wildenberg of the UN mission in the province. Many more people have fled their homes this year than in Darfur. Refugee camps are starting to pop up just outside the provincial capital, Goma.
Congo's last war, which officially ran from 1998 to 2003 but is still simmering in North Kivu, was the world's deadliest since 1945: some 4m people died. Most were silent deaths from hunger or disease, rather than bullets, blades or bombs. The current crisis in North Kivu is now adding daily to the death toll. Aware that they and their homes are targets for all sides, civilians flee at the first sign of fighting, many blending into the bush. Many villages are empty, while those sheltering the displaced are starved of bare necessities by roadblocks and attacked by gunmen. [pic]