The Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC, (formerly known as Zaire) is a fairly large country, roughly one-fourth the size of the United States, and is located in eastcentral Africa. The country itself has vast potential for being a wealthy nation, but due to the ongoing war, the country has remained rather destitute. The land is filled with natural resources such as petroleum, diamonds, gold, silver, coal, and timber, all of which could be used to enrich the nation. However, almost all efforts have been aimed at trying to bring peace to this nation. An official cease-fire treaty was signed in 2002, but much fighting still occurs, with militia groups doing most of the killing.
The war claims hundreds of thousands of lives per year. An estimated 3.8 million people have died in the seven years the war has been going on, which translates to approximately 543,000 people per year killed. This includes not just murders, but torture, brutal beatings, and rape. Over 40,000 cases of rape have been reported since the war began. Famine has taken many lives as well, due to the influx of refugees and the lack of resources. There are an estimated 2.5 million refugees that live in the Congo. They are from their own country as well as from neighboring lands. In fact, a lot of the fighting that is going on continues to be between refugees while in the DRC. It is unfortunate that not only is the Congo war killing thousands of innocent people, but so are the conflicts brought in by other countries.
As if that were not bad enough, 4.2% of the estimated 61 million people living in the DRC have contracted AIDS. That may not sound like a lot, but 1.1 million people is not a small number. These are just the reported cases. It is unknown how many people actually have the virus without knowing it. An average of 100,000 people die every year due to this deadly virus. In addition, many other STD’s also run rampant throughout the population. In direct correlation to this and other factors, the infant mortality rate is on a constant rise and the life expectancy has dropped to a mere 49 years. Considering that the U.S life expectancy is around 78 years, a large gap is evident.

This information was obtained from the following resources: