Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire/Belgian Congo) is killing 38.000 people each month, says the Lancet medical journal.
Most of the deaths are not caused by violence but by malnutrition and preventable diseases after the collapse of health services, the study said according to BBC Online Friday.
Since the civil war began in 1998, some 4 million people have died, making it the worlds most deadly war since 1945, it said. A peace deal has ended most of the fighting but armed gangs continue to roam the east, killing and looting.
– Congo is the deadliest crisis anywhere in the world over the past 60 years, said Richard Brennan, health director of the New York-based International Rescue Committee and the studys lead author.
– Ignorance about its scale and impact is almost universal and international engagement remains completely out of proportion to humanitarian need, added he.
Some 17.000 UN peacekeepers are in DR Congo, to restore peace and organise elections due by the end of June 2006. The huge Central African country consequently has the worlds largest peacekeeping mission.
Researchers visited nearly 20.000 households across the country over a three-month period in 2004, recording births and deaths over the previous 18 months.
They then compared their results with data from neighbouring countries and before the war began and are confident that their results are accurate.
At its height, at least seven foreign armies were involved in the war. Many fighters – both foreign and Congolese – have been accused of looting DR Congos vast natural mineral resources during the war, BBC adds.
