Middle East & Africa

Democratic Republic of the Congo (French: République démocratique du Congo) sometimes referred to as DR Congo Congo-Kinshasa or the DRC is a country located in central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world. With a population of over 75 million[1] the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the nineteenth most populous nation in the world the fourth most populous nation in Africa as well as the most populous officially Francophone country. It borders the Central African Republic and South Sudan to the north; Uganda Rwanda and Burundi in the east; Zambia and Angola to the south; the Republic of the Congo the Angolan exclave of Cabinda and the Atlantic Ocean to the west; and is separated from Tanzania by Lake Tanganyika in the east.[1] The country has access to the ocean through a 40-kilometre (25 mi) stretch of Atlantic coastline at Muanda and the roughly 9 km wide mouth of the Congo River which opens into the Gulf of Guinea. It has the second-highest total Christian population in Africa. The Second Congo War beginning in 1998 devastated the country and is sometimes referred to as the “African world war” because it involved nine African nations and twenty armed groups. Despite the signing of peace accords in 2003 fighting continued in the east of the country in 2007. There the prevalence of rape and other sexual violence is described as the worst in the world. The war is the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II killing 5.4 million people since 1998. More than 90% were not killed in combat. They died from diseases that were both preventable and treatable (malaria diarrhea pneumonia and malnutrition) aggravated by displaced populations living in unsanitary and over-crowded conditions that lacked access to shelter water food and medicine. Forty seven percent of those deaths were children under five.[7] Until today the ongoing conflicts excerbates the exhaustion of the country’s great agricultural potential. This is one reason for a high mortality rate and prevalence of malnutrition.