'Thousands' dying in DR Congo war - Friday, 6 January 2006

[Guest guest]

'Thousands' dying in DR Congo war

BBC Friday, 6 January 2006,

 

Congolese hope elections due this year will end their misery

Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is killing 38,000 people

each month, says the Lancet medical journal.

Most of the deaths are not caused by violence but by malnutrition and

preventable diseases after the collapse of health services, the study

said.

 

Since the war began in 1998, some 4m people have died, making it the

world's most deadly war since 1945, it said.

 

A peace deal has ended most of the fighting but armed gangs continue

to roam the east, killing and looting.

 

" Congo is the deadliest crisis anywhere in the world over the past 60

years, " said Richard Brennan, health director of the New York-based

International Rescue Committee and the study's lead author.

 

" Ignorance about its scale and impact is almost universal and

international engagement remains completely out of proportion to

humanitarian need, "

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4586832.stm