CONGO - civil war casualties reach 2 1/2 million (in 2 1/2 yrs)

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Not that I think we can do anything about it, but it makes me wonder where our priorities are. Barely a few hundred in Israel so far.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/129/world/2_5_million_deaths_attributed_:.shtml

2.5 million deaths attributed to war in eastern Congo

By Associated Press, 5/9/2001 11:07

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) About 2.5 million people died in eastern Congo during the country's 2½-year civil war, an international humanitarian organization says.

The overwhelming majority of deaths were related to disease and malnutrition products of a conflict that has ravaged the vast, mineral-rich country's economy and health care system the New York-based International Rescue Committee said in a report published Tuesday.

''The loss of life is perhaps the worst in Africa in recent decades,'' International Rescue Committee president Reynold Levy said in a statement issued in New York. ''The magnitude of suffering is extraordinary.''

The survey conducted by epidemiologist Les Roberts, the committee's director, updated and expanded a study conducted last year in eastern Congo. The earlier study estimated 1.7 million deaths had occurred in excess of what would normally have been expected.

The fighting has driven hundreds of thousands of people into the jungle, where they have had no access to food, medicine or shelter, the committee said. Aid groups have been unable to reach many war-affected areas.

Some 350,000 deaths were directly attributed to violence. Roberts said one out of eight households surveyed had experienced the violent death of a relative.

The conflict's most dramatic affects have been on young children.

''In two districts, Moba and Kalemie, an estimated 75 percent of children born during this war have died or will die before their second birthday,'' Roberts said.

Congo's war started in 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda, acting with Congolese rebels, took up arms against then President Laurent Kabila. Zimbabwe, Angola, and Namibia entered the conflict on Kabila's side.

All sides signed a peace agreement in 1999 in Lusaka, Zambia, but all subsequently violated it. Peace efforts have moved forward since the Jan. 16 assassination of Kabila and the succession of his son, Joseph.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2001

Answers

that's 2741 per day for two and one half years.

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2001

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