This week (19-25 October) is "Break the Silence" Congo Week. This was brought to my attention by an article in The Root by a Congolese activist named Kambale Musavuli.
The conflict taking place in the DRC is a complicated one; it is a convoluted civil war with several players from several countries including Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Uganda, and Rwanda. A brief overview of the conflict can be found here at globalsecurity.org.
The DRC bloodshed has claimed 5.4 million lives in the last decade, making it the most deadly conflict since World War II (see Joe Bavier's Reuters piece here). Despite this stunning death toll and the sadistic intensity of the violence the DRC is almost completely off the United States' radar. sunt lacrimae rerum.
One of the most troubling aspects of the situation in the DRC is the sexual violence used by various militiamen. For articles detailing this horrific features of this largely neglect war see Anderson Cooper's recent piece on these crimes against humanity. A more recent article written by Dayle Haddon of UNICEF and ENOUGH can be found at cnn.com.
