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Beyond the Bullets and Blades

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March 21st, 2005 - 09:02AM
Photo: Kate Holt for the IRC
In a feature written for Sunday’s New York Times and today’s International Herald Tribune, Marc Lacey says that the numbers who die in Africa's wars are almost too high to contemplate and that even after fighting ends, Africa's innocents bear the wounds.

Lacey cited a recent IRC study that found that 31,000 people die each month in the Democratic Republic of Congo, mostly from easily preventable and treatable diseases such as diarrhea, malaria and measles. Less than 2 percent of the deaths were caused by violence.

According to IRC health director Dr. Rick Brennan – one of the study’s authors – the ongoing war and the resulting lack of access to health services is the main problem. “Our study shows that increasing security is definitely the most effective way to reduce excess mortality in Congo. Once peace is established, clinics re-open, farmers return to their fields, markets commence operating and life begins to return to normal. Babies can then be immunized, parents can feed their families, children return to school, and death and disease reduce dramatically.”


Posted By: Kathleen Sands | Africa, D.R. Congo Emergency, Health, IRC in the News
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