Crisis in the Congo 1 | Page 4

Since 1998, 6 million have died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Half of these are children under the age of five. The Congo is considered the worst place in the world to be a woman or a girl. Combatants use rape of women as a way to break communities and break their spirit and their ability to think and fight back. The United Nations (UN) in March 2005 described the situation in eastern Congo as the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis.” How did this happen? How can a country with the greatest mineral wealth and second largest rainforest in the world be home to the most poor and broken people in the world? One needs to go back 129 years to understand this seemingly complicated quagmire. Once we understand the history of the Congo, then we can ask about their future? If we can accept how we have been involved and complicit in the events of history, then we can finally be a part of the solution.

In 1885, the Berlin Agreement (http://www.unet.com.mk/mian/berlin.html) which was signed at the Berlin Conference (also referred to as the Congo Conference) gave control of the Congo to Belgian King Leopold II. The Berlin Conference was a formalization of the “scramble for Africa” by European colonies. It led to an “increase in colonial activity and the elimination of most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance.” Leopold brutally enslaved the people and used them to mine Congo’s resources and become rich. After the international community cried out against this enslavement, Leopold turned control of the Congo to the Belgian government in 1908. Belgium retained control of the land and the people until 1960.

4 iMagazine / April, 2013

Inside the Congo Crisis

By: Sarkis Halajian