05 Jul 2007 - Anne Richard, IRC vice president of advocacy, testified about the plight of Africa’s refugees before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 20, World Refugee Day. Richard spoke about the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, among other crises:
The 2003 peace agreement in the Congo ended years of civil war. Yet, sporadic violence continues to force people to flee. Recent months have seen a landmark election as well as outbreaks of hostility in the capital Kinshasa. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUC, is charged with keeping the peace but has never had sufficient means or political backing to fulfill its mandate. Resources available to MONUC remain inadequate for the scope of Congo's needs.
The International Rescue Committee has worked in Congo since 1996 and runs programs in six provinces (North Kivu, South Kivu, Orientale, Kasai Occidental, Katanga. IRC operates 190 health facilities in 11 conflict-affected zones with 1 million inhabitants, and is especially focused on improving the health of women and children. IRC also runs a civil society development program to help communities. The IRC is the lead agency for the demobilization of child soldiers in Orientale Province. In South Kivu, IRC provides immediate assistance in response to outbreaks of violence and provides health care, shelter, and water and sanitation facilities to the displaced.
IRC has recently begun implementing a major Community Driven Reconstruction program through funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. IRC is the lead agency in a consortium of three international NGO’s in this $49.3 million, three-year program.
In addition to the services we provide to refugees and the displaced in the Congo, the IRC has played a key role in documenting the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis through a series of four mortality surveys. The survey of 2004 is among the largest ever conducted in a conflict zone and was published in the British medical journal The Lancet. It has since been widely cited by key humanitarian and advocacy agencies, the media and in academic literature. The survey found that more than 3.9 million people died as a result of the conflict between August 1998 and April 2004, with 98 percent of deaths being due to easily preventable and curable diseases. The survey found that as many as 1200 people were dying a day (in excess of normal mortality), or more than 30,000 a month. Many of the victims were children.
It’s tragically simple: war led to the collapse of much of Congo’s health system and economy, which resulted in disease and food shortages. Violence and insecurity has kept people away from clinics, and medical staff away from those in need. It’s a recipe for disaster.
Right now in Congo a team of my colleagues are carrying out the fifth nationwide mortality survey, which will cover the period from January 2006 to April 2007. Five teams consisting of 16 primary researchers and 105 Congolese health workers worked to survey the population in 31 randomly selected health zones across all of D.R. Congo’s eleven provinces. A total of 12,400 households were interviewed about war-related mortality.
The results of this latest survey, which are expected some time this fall, are needed to let us know whether or not the situation in Congo is improving, and particularly how the conflict-ridden east of the country is faring.
Worsening mortality data may suggest that not enough is being done to protect and aid the Congolese. On the other hand, an improving situation may inadvertently suggest that the crisis in Congo is over. IRC staff believes that it will be several years before anyone can make that claim. Again: the international community must remain engaged. Too often donors celebrate the conclusion of successful elections with a cut in support and reduction in peacekeepers, and then wind down of relief and development activities. Please don’t let this happen.
