Humanitarian crisis is the world's deadliest, IRC says

More than 31,000 people die each month as a result of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said on Thursday on releasing the results of a nationwide mortality survey. "Eighteen months after the signing of a formal peace agreement, people in DR Congo continue to die at a rate that is one-third higher than the average rate for sub-Saharan Africa," IRC said. The IRC survey, covering January 2003 to April 2004, measured mortality among nearly 58 million people, representing at least 90 percent of the Congolese population. IRC said an estimated five million people were inaccessible due to security problems. The DRC is struggling to recover from a devastating six-year conflict that continues to destabilise central Africa "and cause immense suffering to the country's civilian population", IRC reported. "The war that commenced in August 1998 and quickly engulfed the country has been characterised by extreme violence, mass population displacements, widespread rape and a collapse of public health services," it said. "The outcome has been a humanitarian disaster unmatched by any other in recent decades." One of the key findings and conclusions of the survey is that the national crude mortality rate of two deaths per 1,000 per month is 67 percent higher than that reported for the country prior to the war. According to the IRC, death rates are highest in the unstable eastern provinces due to easily preventable and treatable diseases, and that lack of security had a direct effect on the number of deaths from both violent and non-violent causes. "When analysed in conjunction with the IRC's previous mortality surveys, the findings indicate that from the beginning of the war in August 1998 to the end of April 2004, approximately 3.8 million people have died as a result of the crisis," IRC said. [On the Net: The IRC report: www.theirc.org]