"Refugees In Congo Desperately Need Aid"

From NPR:

Morning Edition, November 3, 2008 · Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced by fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo. U.N. peacekeepers are protecting an aid convoy that's heading to a town in the rebel-held zone of east Congo. The town was captured last week by rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda, who is participating in the fragile cease-fire.
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Both the Congolese army and the rebel leader it has been battling assured the convoy's safe passage, said Gloria Fernandez, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in eastern Congo.
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She said health clinics north of Goma have been "looted and completely destroyed," leaving the Rutshuru hospital as the only operating medical facility in a region of hundreds of thousands of people.

Food, however, was the critical issue for most people.

"Everybody is hungry, everybody," said Jean Bizy, 25, a teacher, who watched with envy as the U.N. convoy stopped to deliver a sack of potatoes to U.N. troops in Rugari. Bizy said he has been surviving on wild bananas for days.
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"They go around in circles ... fleeing the movement of troops and the lines of combat," she said.

Since Thursday, streams of refugees have thronged the roads around Goma trying to get home, lugging babies and bundles of belongings, guiding children, pigs and goats.

Why is it that international aid agencies seem to be able to do so little? I know; it's a war zone, and the UN peacekeepers are few in number. What do we do? Start a war to stop a war? Does anyone have answers?

One answer is that the Western nations must stop exploiting the people of Africa. Too often the leadership, with whom the West makes their deals, is corrupt, and none of the benefits from the natural resources of the countries make their way to the mass of the people.

UPDATE: For further information, read Georgianne Nienaber's article at The Huffington Post on Congo, and pray for the writers who try to tell the story.

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