Virgil Hawkins - Stealth Conflicts: How the Worlds Worst Violence Is Ignored

Contents

In January 2008, it became known that 5.4 million people had died because of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the vast majority from preventable disease and starvation (IRC 2008). Not only is it by far the deadliest conflict in the world today, it is the deadliest of the past half-century. It began in August 1998, in the form of a Rwandan-led invasion (joined by Uganda, and, to a lesser extent, Burundi), ostensibly in support of a number of local rebellions. It was a lightning strike consisting of an eastern front beginning from the areas bordering the invading states, and a western front that commenced with the hijacking of civilian planes in the east, which were used to ferry hundreds of soldiers to a military base west of Kinshasa, who then joined with disgruntled forces there to occupy the Inga Dam and move on the capital. Five African countries came to the aid of the DRC government, and a combination of Angolan, Zimbabwean and DRC troops were able to stop the advance on the capital and shut down the western front. The eastern advance was eventually halted as well, resulting in a stalemate that left the country (the size of Western Europe) effectively cut in half. Although foreign troops had withdrawn by 2003, and the conflict has largely subsided, violence has continued from overlapping local and national conflicts (that accompanied the international conflict), insecurity and human rights abuse are rife in parts of the country, and the abysmal humanitarian conditions resulting from the conflict continue to cause levels of death and suffering unparalleled anywhere else in the world.