Eastern Congo's Genocide

The effects of Haiti's earthquake have been heart wrenching to follow. The nation that barely functioned before the earthquake is a total wreck today. Thankfully, massive relief efforts are underway, even if the obstacles are enormous.

While North Americans have been opening their pocketbooks for Haitian relief, another darker tragedy has been playing out for much longer. The killing, rape, kidnapping & genocide of innocent civilians committed by bands of Hutu militias has claimed more than 30 times as many lives as the Haiti earthquake. 5.4 million people have died there since April, 2007.

But very few people are talking about this ongoing catastrophe. Nicholas Krystof of the New York Times refers to this as "the most lethal conflict" since World War 2. He wishes a tsunami or earthquake would strike just so that the world might start paying attention. You can read his op-ed piece by going to http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/opinion/31kristof.html?emc=eta1.

My cousin Jennifer just returned from a couple weeks in Uganda and Congo. I'm waiting to hear her first-hand account of what she saw and experienced.

Brady Smith, College Church's missionary to Lausanne, also recently returned from an extended trip to Congo. Perhaps we will soon hear his unsettling report about the broken lives he encountered.

Comments

Anonymous said…
haha i'm the only post.

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