Congo death toll up to 3.8m

Associated Press in Dakar
Friday December 10, 2004
The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/congo/story/0,12292,1370528,00.html

Six years of conflict in Congo have claimed 3.8 million lives - half of them children - with most victims killed by disease and famine in the still largely cut-off east, the International Rescue Committee said yesterday.

More than 31,000 civilians die each month as a result of the conflict despite peace deals, the group said, citing mortality surveys prepared with the aid of on-site medical teams. The association has for years produced the most widely used estimate of deaths in the country.

Congo's death toll is a third higher than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa 18 months after major peace agreements, the New York-based group said.

Most deaths are from easily treatable ailments, including measles epidemics known to have swept through rebel-held areas during the war.


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