Congo: Never Ending Winter

Undoubtedly the deadliest conflict in Africa the Congo wars, including violence in aftermath, claimed over 9.2 million lives. The ‘Congo Wars’, claimed 3.8 million between the eight nations involved (these are African lives). In the January 2008 IRC report (www.theirc.org), 5.4 million lives have been wasted since 1998 (survey ended in 2007). In the recent months nearly 62,000 refugees are displaced due to rebel violence. Two third of these refugees are children.
The magnitude of the lives loss in the Congo democide can be felt in the IRC president, George Rupp’s, description of the mass, “Congo’s loss is equivalent to the entire population of Denmark or the state of Colorado perishing within a decade”.

The climate of the conflicts afflicting the Congo, are especially detrimental to the women and young girls. Rape is being used as a tool of coercion and humiliation. The rape has specifically been described as brutal. All ages of women have been subjected to the violence of rape by rebel and government soldiers. Civilian women and children are left helpless to armed soldiers. Often the women are raped by half a dozen men at once. The mental and physical effects of the rape victims and the devastation of the witnessing children are hard to articulate. With men being killed and mothers and daughter being raped families are reduced to only including orphan children. The males will be recruited to terror with internal pugnacious motivation. Young girls will perish under the clinches of hungry thugs; they will give birth to more orphans, die from unhealthy pregnancies, and become victims of HIV.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is anything but a Democracy. The Congo however, is a strong exemplum of Democracy as the modern colonialism. An endless civil war is swiping through the Congo like a forest fire and no one is taking responsibility. Dissidents don’t stand a chance and the last time an effective leader took charge the U.S. killed them for their own interest. What is it going to take to get the world saving west to man up and end this vehement never ending winter that they have weathered?