Crises in the Congo

By Patrick Gardner

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located in Central Africa, North of Angola, and West of Tanzania.  It is the single most biodiverse country in Africa, home to over 10,000 species (Congo Rainforest).  The northern part of the country is covered with 1.55 million square kilometers of equatorial rainforest, more than half of Africa’s forest, centered around the Congo River (UNEP Study).  The country also contains a wealth of minerals and precious metals, in particular in the Katanga region, on the southern border of the country (Britannica).

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is suffering from a multitude of environmental and public health crises, all of which are exacerbated by economic problems, and a repressive government.

Of the 10,000 species mentioned earlier, 190 are classified as threatened, endangered, or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (UNEP Study).  Deforestation has increased in the last few years, with the DRC losing the 2nd largest area of tropical primary forest in the world in 2018 (Bergen).  This has not only reduced the habitat of many tropical species, reduction of tropical primary forests have adversely impacted the climate in the region.  Loss of rainforest has resulted in reduced rainfall, which has the potential to harm small-scale rain-fed agriculture, a practice common in the DRC (UNEP Study). 

Another problem is the prevalence of unregulated hunting, with up to 1.7 million tonnes of bush meat being harvested per year (UNEP Study).  Unregulated mining, by as many as 2,000,000 people, is causing significant environmental damage (UNEP Study). This includes erosion and leachate from mine tailings, and more worrisome, the release of approximately 15 tonnes of mercury annually, as losses from the process of gold refining.  Overfishing in the Congo River is yet another problem, as the river is one of the primary sources of food for millions of people, resulting in localized overfishing around population centers (UNEP Study).

Civil unrest has been a nearly continuous problem in the DRC since its independence from Belgium in 1960, making it more difficult to address any of the other problems the country faces.  The country has struggled to enact political elections, with voter suppression being fairly commonplace, with more than one million Congolese unable to vote in 2019 (Roth).  In addition, use of force to repress dissent is a frequent occurrence, with mass arrests, and occasional lethal shootings of protesters by state security forces (Roth).  Other, independent armed groups are also profuse, with more than 140 such groups operating in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces alone (Roth).  The UN Human Rights Council has been attempting to maintain some form of order in the country, holding trials against militia leaders and members of the Congolese security force, but has faced resistance, with two UN investigators murdered in 2017 (Roth).

The DRC is among the poorest countries in the world, with 72% of the population living on less than $2.00 per day (Overview).  The country has been hit hard by drops in commodity prices, as its only properly functional industry, the mining of copper and cobalt, have seen drops in value (Overview).  The main problems are lack of access to clean water, with only 43% of households having access to drinking water, and healthcare, with only 20% of households having access to proper sanitation, and 43% of children in the DRC being undernourished.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has chronically suffered from outbreaks of deadly pathogens, such as TB, Malaria, HIV/AIDS, and Ebola (Neglected Tropical Diseases).  In particular, the DRC saw a massive Measles outbreak in 2019, with 310,000 suspected cases, and nearly 5,000 deaths, coinciding with the second deadliest documented Ebola outbreak  (DR Congo Measles).  This was eventually blunted by a massive vaccination campaign, with over 18 million people vaccinated in the last five months of the year. 

As of April 22, COVID-19 has yet to cause too much damage to the country, with only 350 cases reported (Gigova).  However, this may change, as other public health crises, such as the outbreaks mentioned before, have taxed the country’s already lackluster healthcare system to the limit (Gigova).  This was already the case before COVID-19, as the large response to the 2019 Ebola outbreak drew resources away from the Measles outbreak, a contributing factor to why it was as bad as it was (Gigova).

Works Cited

“'Deadly Environment' plus 'Political and Social' Obstacles Hinder Ebola Fight in DR Congo, Security Council Hears | | UN News.” United Nations, United Nations, 24 July 2019, news.un.org/en/story/2019/07/1043161.

Bergen, Molly. Congo Basin Deforestation Threatens Food and Water Supplies Throughout Africa. World Resources Institute, 13 Sept. 2019, www.wri.org/blog/2019/07/congo-basin-deforestation-threatens-food-and-water-supplies-throughout-africa.

“Congo Rainforest and Basin.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, www.worldwildlife.org/places/congo-basin.

“DR Congo Measles: More than 6,000 Dead in World's Worst Outbreak.” BBC News, BBC, 8 Jan. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51028791.

Gigova, Radina. “DRC Is Fighting Several Killer Diseases, Including Covid-19.” CNN, Cable News Network, 22 Apr. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/africa/drc-coronavirus-killer-diseases-intl/index.html.

“Neglected Tropical Diseases.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 2016, www.afro.who.int/health-topics/neglected-tropical-diseases.

“Overview.” World Bank, www.worldbank.org/en/country/drc/overview.

Roth, Kenneth. “World Report 2019: Rights Trends in Democratic Republic of Congo.” Human Rights Watch, 17 Jan. 2019, www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/democratic-republic-congo.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Msiri.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 16 Dec. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Msiri.

“UNEP Study Confirms DR Congo's Potential as Environmental Powerhouse but Warns of Critical Threats.” UN Environment, 7 Aug. 2017, www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/unep-study-confirms-dr-congos-potential-environmental-powerhouse-warns.