The Washington Post is reporting this morning sobering news regarding the loss of life in Congo ten years after war erupted in the African country and six years after a peace agreement was signed.

The numbers exceed 5.4 million deaths in Congo which is eight percent of the entire country’s population of 66 million.

According to reports from the International Rescue Committee, the biggest killer of Congo’s people are preventable diseases such as malaria, diarrhea and respiratory illnesses. The diseases are running rampant due to a”shortage of medical care in the chaotic postwar environment.”

“It may be formally at peace, but it’s not in practice entirely at peace,” said Richard Brennan, one of the report’s authors.

snip

“The peace agreement, negotiated under intense pressure from the United States and other countries, would include a cease-fire as well as deals to integrate various militia groups into the national army. An amnesty would apply to people who committed acts of war, though not crimes against humanity.”

Violent death in the post war Congo has reduced over the years but researchers say that much of the 5.4 million deceased citizens comes from “the excess” of war.

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