Democratic Republic of the Congo

February 26, 2009

COUNTRY ALERT: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (known as Zaire until 1997) has suffered two wars since 1996. The first war (1996), began as a direct result of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The second began in 1998 and involved the armed forces of at least seven countries and multiple militias. According to the International Rescue Committee, since 1998, an estimated 5.4 million people have died, most from preventable diseases as a result of the collapse of infrastructure, lack of food security, displacement, and destroyed health-care systems.

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Khartoum, Sudan

February 26, 2009

COUNTRY ALERT: SUDAN

From 1983-2005, civil war in the south killed at least 2 million people and displaced more than 4 million others. In 2003, spurred by decades of political and economic marginalization and a history of ethnic discrimination, rebel groups in Darfur took up arms against government forces. In response, the Sudanese government and its proxy militias targeted civilian populations in Darfur, killing at least 200,000 civilians, displacing more than 2.5 million people, destroying thousands of villages, and raping thousands of women.

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