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Warring groups today wreak havoc on a country first exploited as a Belgium colony. From the awful times of enforced rubber quotas, when punishment meant cutting off limbs, till today the scene remains one of misery and destitution.
Uranium reserves of the country have been exploited by the US to build atomic bombs. World powers fought, using this country as a scapegoat. Finally freedom in 1960 gained the nation Patrice Lumumba as prime minister after whom Mobutu seized power, but not peace in earnest. Mobutu Sese Seko named the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC Zaire. His regime turned into a period of human rights abuses and rampant corruption till he died in 1997 in Morocco.
Since then, there have been many internal conflicts where all sides have been supported from various neighbors. The conflict has also been fueled by weapon sales and by military training. The weapons have come from the former Soviet bloc countries as well as the United States, who have also provided military training.
Conflict in Congo began in 1998, making it the world's most lethal conflict since World War II. The five-year conflict pitted government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda. Despite a peace deal and the formation of a transitional government in 2003, the threat of civil war remains. Three million dead is the legacy of the war.
How are the people suffering?
• Death and Destruction
• Bad sanitation and diseases
• Hunger and malnutrition
• Conflicts over basic resources such as water, access and control over rich minerals
• Repeated military operations and violence, including rape and other forms of attacks on civilians, in areas rich in mineral resources
• Rebels Targeting harvests, destroying hard work and spirit in no time.
• Forced labor and displacement
This armed conflict is a muse to over exploit DRC's rich natural resources including timber, diamonds, copper, cobalt, gold, uranium and cotton. Local militias, backed by Uganda, Rwanda and mining multinationals, get supplies of food, money, and military hardware in exchange for smuggled resource riches. Powerful economic and geopolitical interests of neighboring countries further fuel the conflict.
Putting an end to the corruption and impunity in the mining sector would bolster the democratic election results and allow the DRC to take advantage of its own natural wealth. This nation of 63 million people, in the heart of Africa is in dire need of peace and stability.
