War in Congo kills 45,000 people each month

· Decade-long conflict is most deadly since 1945
· Half of dying are small children, survey shows

Chris McGreal in Johannesburg
Wednesday January 23, 2008
The Guardian


Congolese children show off war-themed toys made from clay in a UN refugee camp. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP


A decade of fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo is continuing to kill about 45,000 people each month - half of them small children - in the deadliest conflict since the second world war, according to a new survey.

The International Rescue Committee said preventable diseases and starvation aggravated by conflict have claimed 5.4 million lives since the beginning of the second Congo war in 1998, equivalent to the population of Denmark. Although the war officially ended in 2002, malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition continue to claim thousands of lives.

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