Five years after Congo’s devastating war “ended”, the country’s death rate remains the same. These are the findings of a survey released in mid January. The study estimates 45,000 die every month in the Congo, the same numbers as revealed by a wartime survey in 2004.
Still, improvements in security since 2004, when the last survey was completed, meant that researchers were able to visit many areas that were off limits last time, and as a result, its authors said, the current survey provides the most complete picture yet of the toll of Congo’s slide into despair.
That picture is not encouraging. The survey found that the mortality rate in Congo is 57 percent higher than in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Particularly hard hit were young children, who are especially susceptible to diseases like malaria, measles, dysentery and typhoid, serious killers in the absence of medicine. In one village in North Kivu Province, a hot spot of continued fighting, three women of the 20 households surveyed had lost two children each in the 16 months covered by the survey period, Dr. Brennan said.
Less than half a percentage point of the deaths were caused by violence, illustrating how the aftermath of war can be more deadly than combat itself. Much of the emergency aid is focused on the eastern part of the country, where militia battles with Congolese troops have chased nearly half a million people from their homes in the last year. A peace agreement to end that conflict was reached Monday.
Hat Tip: PCR Project
Christopher Albon is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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