Congo's plight: The vast African nation is still crippled by crisis
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The recent visit to Pittsburgh of the Anglican archbishop of the Congo, Msgr. Henri Isingoma, calls attention to a problem that is largely being ignored, the country's plight in the face of years of war and bad government.
Its population is estimated at 70 million and the nation is huge, about the size of the United States east of the Mississippi. It is rich, with copper, cobalt, coltan, gold, diamonds, oil, timber and hydroelectric power capacity as well as endless agricultural lands. It has an active press, with numerous dailies, weeklies and journals.
But the Democratic Republic of the Congo has known endless war from 1996 to the present. The big story in recent years has been the prevalence of rape as a weapon by the tribal militias that run free there, especially in the east. Msgr. Isingoma's archbishopric is based in Bunia, in the northeast, arguably the most violent and bloodstained corner of the vast country.
The Congo had reasonable elections in 2006, choosing as president Joseph Kabila, the son of murdered president Laurent Kabila, who drove longtime U.S.-supported dictator Mobutu Sese Seku from the country in 1997. It now has a respectable number of United Nations peacekeeping forces, and U.N. and other bodies strive to see that the meager international aid from which the Congo has benefited for years is used honestly and productively.
It is not easy for either Congolese or international officials to get a grip on the ravages to the population wreaked by years of war and a lack of education, health care, infrastructure and judicial facilities, virtually since independence in 1960. While the Congo is set to hold presidential elections this year, there isn't much hope that they will make much difference, except to divert resources to certain campaigns.
Msgr. Isingoma's visit, as a guest of Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside, has enabled Pittsburghers to get a clearer picture of what is happening in a country that few Americans pay attention to, or are even aware of, in spite of its continuing humanitarian crisis.
First Published April 6, 2011 12:00 am
