Congo facing a “fait accompli” - WHO/UNICEF

A joint WHO/UNICEF mission carried out in late June said that DRC was not facing a disaster in the making, but “a fait accompli”. In a report dated 28 June, the mission noted that after “decades of state and external looting of national resources, war with its toll of physical and mental violence, displacement, insecurity and loss of income, has pushed Congolese households over the brink”. “Coping mechanism have crumbled,” the report said. “Vulnerability has increased in all senses of the word, and nowhere so evidently as in health where common preventable and treatable conditions such as malaria, measles, malnutrition, respiratory tract infections are killing, and access to any kind of health care has plummeted.” According to the report, every facet of society - whether human rights or economy, education or water and sanitation, housing or social care - had collapsed and the whole population, not just those on the frontline, were exposed. “Women, who often hold the household together, are paying an extraordinary price.” “This year over 42,000 will die in childbirth alone,” it noted, adding that under-nourishment, forced and economic prostitution, overwork for pathetic recompense, untreated ill health and the psychological strain of maintaining large families were exacting a terrible toll. HIV/AIDS also had the potential of ruining any benefits from impending peace.