Where's Congo and What's DRC

As some of you might know DRC has been the focus of international advocacy groups due to ongoing violence and conflict since the country's independence in 1960. The most recent violence began in 1998 in Eastern DRC as a result of the 1994 Rwandan genocide spilling into neighboring DRC bringing into DRC Rwandan genocidaires seeking refuge while they staged attacks into Rwanda. Ultimately, this led to the fall of the DRC government and the beginning of five years of violence, chaos and instability. The Congolese people have borne the brunt of the war with over three million people dead and millions displaced as a result of fighting, malnutrition and disease. Many refer to the ongoing violence in DRC as Africa's World War because of the direct involvement in the conflict of neighboring countries such as Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

While a peace agreement was reached in 2003 and recent democratic elections in July 2006 are signs of progress, the country is still very fragile and could easy fall back into war with many issues still plaguing this large, resource rich country. I will explore these issues further in future blogs but the International Crisis Group issued a recent report outlining problems in DRC and the need for continued international engagement. A overview and the full report can be found at http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4604&l=1. Bottom line though, to ensure stability and create a democracy, the international community must stay engaged. Elections cannot mean the end of international involvement or else previous international efforts to create peace will have been in vain.

For a short background history and map of the DRC visit http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/alert/congo/contents/01-overview/ and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1076399.stm.