A Deadly Cocktail Devastates Congo

A quietly lethal crisis in the heart of Africa is spiraling out of control. It does not have the made-for-television drama of other emergencies of the last decade in the Horn of Africa or the Balkans. But the war in Congo is no less catastrophic.

We recently traveled in the hardest hit area of Congo, the east. There and throughout the country, the last four years of war have decimated the ability of families to survive. About 1.7 million people have perished in the last two years under the canopy of an impenetrable forest, invisible to and forgotten by most of the outside world. Recent international human rights investigations have confirmed that the underlying crisis is intensifying.

The current conflict has divided control of the country in half and further divided southern African allies of the Congolese government against Rwanda and Uganda, whose forces are operating deep in Congolese territory with rebel units they support. The destruction sown by the 100,000 or so soldiers of these armies is exacerbated sharply by the presence of tens of thousands of militia associated with insurgencies in Angola, Uganda and Rwanda, including thousands that either helped organize or participated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Licit and illicit asset-stripping of Congo’s vast mineral wealth leads to further competition and opens the door to penetration by criminal elements.

In the east, this deadly cocktail of state and nonstate actors has metastasized into conditions of unprecedented violence, egregious human rights violations and incipient warlordism, which slowly tear the social and economic fabric of the region to pieces. Congolese civilians bear the brunt of this destruction. All warring factions in the east have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, leading to massive displacement and a health crisis--both physical and psychological--of epidemic proportions. The culture of impunity encourages further cycles of reprisal, exposing many to horrific crimes and depredations.

For the past year, the United States and the European Union have worked closely with African governments to support the implementation of an African-brokered cease-fire agreement. But a U.N. peacekeeping force has not been able to deploy because of continuous cease-fire violations, deadly and destructive fighting between Uganda and Rwanda inside Congo and actions by the Congolese government to undermine the agreement’s implementation.

While efforts to implement the cease-fire agreement intensify, the U.S. also is increasing efforts to address some of the most damaging symptoms of the war and the cycle of impunity in which it is immersed.

In response to the humanitarian crisis, the U.S. and other key donors are finalizing a new humanitarian initiative that will greatly increase assistance to Congolese civilians. This includes additional U.S. humanitarian aid for Congo. The multinational initiative would launch efforts to promote reconciliation and economic revitalization at the local level to counteract the ethnic divisions furthered by hate merchants on all sides.

In response to surrounding countries’ militias on Congolese soil, the U.S. and others are actively promoting methods to demobilize and re-integrate those forces.

In response to the war-related atrocities that haunt this region like a recurring nightmare, the U.S. government is working to promote increased accountability. To begin, the U.S. is collecting and reviewing a significant number of reports on atrocities in order to make this information more broadly known and to determine appropriate judicial responses.

The U.S. is supporting international nongovernmental organizations to build the capacity of Congolese groups to monitor rights violations and promote the rule of law. The U.S. will also coordinate with other governments to ensure that there is a more sustained and coordinated multilateral effort to advocate for human rights in Congo.

At the end of the day, the role of the international community has its limits. For peace and reconciliation to have a chance, the parties to the conflict--particularly the Congolese government--must uphold the obligations spelled out in the agreement they all signed.

Meantime, while maintaining its commitment to peace in the region, the U.S. government is putting even greater emphasis on accountability for human rights and responding to humanitarian needs. We believe this emphasis will reduce the suffering of the Congolese people and increase the opportunities for reconciliation in that troubled country.