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Irish Independent, 5th November 2008
In a continent all too often beset by tragedy, the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have perhaps the saddest story to tell. After suffering one of the most brutal of the colonial occupations, the independent Congo was forced to endure the kleptocratic rule of Mobutu Sese Seko who embezzled $5bn while his people remained in poverty.
Two civil wars then gripped the nation, the second killing almost 5.5 million people between 1998 and 2003, making it the bloodiest conflict since the Second World War.
The current humanitarian situation in the Congo is dire.
The 17,000 UN peacekeepers on the ground have proven incapable of stemming the violence. While the international community dithers over its decision to send in support, an estimated 250,000 people have been driven from their homes.
Many are too afraid to go to refugee camps and instead have hidden in the jungle, waiting for the relentless violence to ease.
Once again, it has been left to aid agencies to carry the burden of these forgotten people. Goal, at present, is responding to the emergency situation in the eastern province of Katanga supporting hospitals, clinics and nutrition centres.
Goal's country director in DRC reported this week on the possibility of another full-scale war and the lack of funding available to humanitarians caring for this most vulnerable of populations.
We can only hope that the international community will find the courage to avert yet another sad chapter being written in the tragic history of the Congo.
JOHN O'SHEA
GOAL
DUN LAOGHAIRE,
CO DUBLIN
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