In the last decade, war and terrorism have exacted their greatest toll not in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan or the Balkans, nor in terrorist targets like New York, Washington, London, Madrid or Mumbai. Largely unnoticed by much of the world, the most carnage has taken place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is facing a crucial election this Sunday.
Congo has had a troubled history since gaining independence from Belgium in 1960. Its first elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, was assassinated in 1961. The nation suffered and stagnated for 32 years under a dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, who looted the mineral-rich country for personal gain.
Unrest took hold in 1996, and Mobutu was ousted in 1997, setting off years of lethal conflict that former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has dubbed “Africa’s first world war.” In addition to rebel groups, troops from six neighboring nations were involved at various times.
Although a tenuous peace was achieved in 2002 under Joseph Kabila, the son of an assassinated rebel leader, fighting and unrest continues in the eastern Congo, where much of the nation’s mineral reserves are located.
The toll has been almost inconceivable. An estimated 4 million Congolese have died during the war, mostly of disease or hunger. Even today, the United Nations estimates 1,200 people, half of them children, die every day – victims of fighting, disease and hunger in a nation of about 60 million. (An estimated 100 Iraqi civilians were killed daily in June.)
With that tragic history as a backdrop, Congolese nevertheless are preparing for their second nationwide election since independence. It is a chaotic affair, with 33 candidates for president, and 9,500 candidates for 500 legislative seats.
Joseph Kabila is considered the presidential front-runner, and many Congolese are skeptical about the fairness of the process. Despite 17,500 U.N. peacekeepers, 1,000 European Union soldiers and more than $430 million in foreign aid to run the election, the campaign has been marred by rioting, allegations of fraud, calls for a voting boycott, and many deaths.
Despite all that, some Congolese remain optimistic. “This is going to be a democracy with us, the people, in charge,” Jacques Onusumba, a fruit-seller in the city of Lubumbashi, told a British reporter recently. “Well, that’s the theory.”
We hope the path of democracy is a path to an overdue peace.
