Double Whammy

I think the contrast between the first two articles below is interesting: the first, via IRIN, is concerned with the fact that civilians continue to be displaced by the conflict in eastern DR Congo. While details are provided as to what groups are implicated in the current clash, the primary concern appears to be the fact that people living in the villages near the fighting had to leave, and that it has not yet been safe for aid workers to help them.

The second article, via BBC News, is interested in the drama of the Congolese army fighting rebel soldiers, how many people have been killed, and that refugees have had to flee.

Perhaps it is simply the wording in the BBC article that bothers me, because having been in the field of public health/development/humanitarian aid for a little while now, and in reading reports and news briefs and essays and memoirs and novels, the language obviously differs.

When you read civilian and displaced, the feel is very different from refugees fleeing. Somehow, refugees are now this romanticized disenfranchised group.

Also, the last sentence in the BBC article just slays me:

Several neighbouring countries were drawn into DR Congo's brutal five-year conflict in which 3m people were killed.

So much so that I sent them an email railing on about the fact that 3 million people have not BEEN KILLED by the conflict. My intent is certainly not to minimize the impact of DR Congo's recent history. I know. I've seen the results.

But accuracy would be nice. If they said, "An estimated 3 million people have died due to effects of the conflict," which is what they usually say, we picture the lack of access to food markets, healthy crops, and medical care.

If they say, "3 million people WERE KILLED," we picture the Rwanda war and genocide times five.

And then there is Kalemie, which is now suffering from a triple-whammy to food security: residual displacement and crop damage due to conflict, lack of market access to fishing equipment, and recent flooding (elaborated in the last article).


DRC: Civilians displaced in renewed fighting in North Kivu
DR Congo troops fight each other
DRC: Floods in Kalemie cause food insecurity