US government to boost aid, envoy says

The US government will increase its humanitarian support of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tony Hall, US ambassador to the UN World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agriculture Development, said on Tuesday at a news conference in the capital, Kinshasa. "We must continue to provide humanitarian support to this country, because it cannot do it alone," he said at the end of an eight-day tour of the central African country. Hall visited several sites in eastern Congo, a region particularly devastated by more than four years of war, and where sporadic but violent combat has persisted despite the installation on 30 June of a government of national unity. He cited the case of South Kivu Province, where more than 5,000 women, young girls and children had reported being raped in the past three months alone. "Women have paid most dearly for this war," he said, adding that during his tour, he met women, young girls and even babies who had been raped repeatedly. "Among them was a woman who saw her seven children slaughtered, her three daughters having been raped before they were killed," he said. "On top of it all, this woman gave birth to a child resulting from rape." Hall denounced the widespread use of child soldiers, often taken from their families by belligerent parties. "In Bunia, Goma and Bukavu [cities in eastern DRC], child soldiers are numerous. Many of them are only as tall as my waist, and have lost the vibrancy of childhood," he said. Though having visited many troubled regions in recent years, Hall said that he had never seen such incredible misery. "I have been in Iraq, in Afghanistan and in Kosovo, but I have never seen such egregious violations of human rights," he said. "The Congolese people must themselves vow that there will be no more guns, no more rapes, no more child soldiers. This country has suffered enough." During his tour of eastern Congo, Hall also visited a number of projects aimed at assisting internally displaced people (IDPs) and feeding under- and malnourished children. He said that the country suffered from one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world: 213 of every 1,000 children born die before reaching their first birthday. Nevertheless, Hall said he was hopeful for the future of the country, with the recent installation of a two-year transitional government that would lead to democratic national elections. According to UN estimates, there are over 2.7 million IDPs in the DRC, mainly in the east. In November 2002, the International Rescue Committee reported that an estimated 3.3 million people had died since fighting erupted in August 1998 - making it the deadliest war ever documented in Africa, and the highest war death toll documented anywhere in the world during the past half-century. Hall noted that the average per capital annual income in the country was US $87 meaning, "most people must survive on less than 25 cents per day". Hall also said that the US was one of the biggest contributors of humanitarian aid to the DRC: in 2003 alone, the US had provided at least $100 million in support of humanitarian groups operating in the country. Hall was appointed by US President George W. Bush to his current position after having served 24 years in the US Congress. He has several times been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.