Refugee Crisis & Ongoing War In Dem. Republic Of The Congo

There is a terrible refugee crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

I’m not well informed about this nation, but I do have this forum to help make the issue more well- known.

Our problems here at home are real and important, yet we are often blind the needs of problems of our brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, refugee camps have been burned and the people who lived in these camps have been cast adrift. As many as 50,000 people may have lived in these camps. In addition, 250,000 people in the D.R.C are fleeing fighting between the government and rebels.

This BBC article discusses the reasons behind the conflict.

From the article—

“For years, fighting has been fuelled by the country’s vast mineral wealth. DR Congo is about the size of western Europe, but with no road or rail links from one side of the country to the other. That makes it easy for all sides in a conflict to take advantage of any disorder and plunder natural resources. A five-year war – sometimes termed “Africa’s world war” as it drew in Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Rwanda – ended in 2003 with the formation of a transitional government and subsequent elections. But unrest has continued in the unruly east of the country and, as a result, some armed groups have refused to disarm or join the national army.”

The Economist reports that the European Union and the United States have sent top diplomats to the Congo to help resolve the crisis and to stop a recurrence of the terrible warfare earlier this decade on this part of the world.  

Here are some basic facts about Congo. Over 60 million people live in this nation and the life expectancy for both men and women is under 50 years. Can you imagine even more trouble for these people?

Here is Oxfam on the current situation in the Congo.

The very good Global Voices features bloggers who are discussing this issue. One on the scene blogger is a woman who runs the official blog of the Virguna National Park in Congo.

Maybe when we are done with the silliness of our election we can move ahead to a wider view of the world.