Reportage / Religion 02.05.2023

Time for impact assessment

On Tuesday 31 January 2023, the country is in turmoil. Pope Francis has arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first stage of his African tour. All the institutions of the republic, the opposition, civil society and pressure groups…

Akilimali Saleh Chomachoma

On Tuesday 31 January 2023, the country is in turmoil. Pope Francis has arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the first stage of his African tour. All the institutions of the republic, the opposition, civil society and pressure groups converged at Kinshasa’s Ndolo international airport, where the papal mass was held. Thousands of Catholic faithful were also present. On average, more than one million people joined in. Two months on, opinions differ on Pope Francis’ visit to the DRC

Insecurity in the East of the country

Pope Francis’ visit to the DR Congo has put a forgotten war on the world stage. National opinion in the DRC is that the Congo war has been forgotten by everyone and that the international community is not offering the necessary support to end it. The pontiff is therefore a very good way of drawing the attention of the other peoples of the world to the drama that is taking place in Congo. “The Congolese people, wounded by the recurrent insecurity, the multiform violations of human rights, the massive displacement of populations, especially in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, welcomed the Pope as a Consoler” Abbé Georges KALENGA, second Deputy General Secretary of CENCO

The Pope saw the victims of the war but did not go to Goma, in the east of the DRC and the heart of all the violence. This is something that Placide Nzilamba, technical secretary of civil society in North Kivu province, said. “The Pope should be going here to Goma but it is Rwanda with the M23 that has brandished terrorist threats, has taken over the localities just a few metres from where he should be holding his mass. Everything has been done so that the Pope does not see the reality on the ground,” he denounced in InsdeOver. A thesis that seems to convince also the Abbot Georges KALENGA who indicates that “the pullers of the strings of the insecurity that prevails in the East of the DR Congo wanted to prevent him by reviving the insecurity in North Kivu in Ituri while the first program provided as a place of visit Kinshasa, the capital, the city of Goma, and even Beni in the very first scheme. The Pope decided to carry out the apostolic visit to DR Congo, without the stage of Goma, undoubtedly because of insecurity” he said.

Some members of the citizens’ movement regretted the fact that the country did not mention Kigali, which Kinshasa accuses of supporting the M23, the rebellion that controls part of the national territory and has repeatedly threatened the city of Goma for several months. “We have raised awareness and our members have had to make banners and banners so that journalists and delegations who come with the Pope can know that the country is under attack. If the Pope would have mentioned Rwanda by name, it would be a good thing, but since he didn’t, it doesn’t matter,” says Marc, an activist from Kinshasa.

But if there is one point on which everyone agrees about the Pope’s visit to the DRC, it is the fact that it is making headlines in the international press.

Take your hands off the Congo!

“Take your hands off the Democratic Republic of Congo, take your hands off Africa! Stop smothering Africa: it is not a mine to be exploited or a land to be robbed. Let the world remember the disasters committed over the centuries to the detriment of the local populations and not forget this country and this continent,” said Pope Francis at Ndolo airport for his mass.

The Pope denounced the factors, including neo-colonialism, which favour the control of the natural resources of the DR Congo. “He called into question the great powers and multinationals that are laying their hands on the wealth and causing insecurity for a systematic plundering of the resources of the Congo. His visit, with its high pastoral and social impact, is a real plea, not only to the Congolese, but also to the international community for a responsible and humane ecology,” says Abbé Georges.

“The Pope used a magic formula. “Take your hands off the DRC”, it is addressed to everyone,” says Bienvenu MATUMO. Bienvenu is an activist of the “Struggle for Change” LUCHA, a citizen’s movement that participates as a pressure group on the country’s issues.

The contrasting socio-political situation

“The Pope’s visit to the DR Congo confirmed the Congolese episcopate in its prophetic mission for the benefit of the population. In fact, the Catholic Church of Congo, through its pastors, the bishops of the 48 Catholic dioceses of the DR Congo, united in the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), accompanies the Congolese state in its quest to be a state of law”, said Abbé Georges.

From the management of public affairs through democratic issues to the fight against the pursuit of personal interests, the Pope used a direct but gentle style to charge the Congolese authorities. 

“Many of you shine in the role you play. Those who hold civil and governmental responsibilities are called to act with crystalline clarity, living the function they have received as a means of serving society. Power is only meaningful if it becomes service. And at the same time, promote free, transparent and credible elections; extend participation in peace processes to women, young people and various groups, to marginalized groups; seek the common good and the security of people rather than personal or group interests; strengthen the presence of the State throughout the territory; take care of the so many displaced persons and refugees”.

Several observers believe that the Pope has not been listened to by the ruling class on the drifts that are observed in the country. 

“Here the Pope said but it is necessary that the structures of the Catholic Church put pressure to achieve the desired changes because the vision of the Pope is not different from that of the CENCO,” says Placide Nzilamba.

Bienvenu Matumo describes an alarming situation in the country on the points raised by the Pope during his visit to the DRC: “The Pope came with a speech of unity, love and forgiveness. But in practice there is mutual detestation for political reasons. When we look at the matters retained in the national assembly, we understand that there is a clear desire to create more division within the Congolese population through the Tshiani law (a law that aims to reserve the highest offices of the state, including the supreme magistracy, only to Congolese born of Congolese father and mother – editor’s note). 

“The year 2023 is a year of expiry of mandates according to the provisions of the Constitution. The Church expects inclusive elections in the sense that the whole population, throughout the national territory, and even Congolese abroad, can participate in the elections without any discrimination,” adds Abbé Georges. 

According to Bienvenu, the Pope has left a great reserve with the archbishop of Kinshasa. “The Church in Congo has always been politically involved in the major issues of the country from Cardinal Malula to Cardinal Ambongo. The Pope’s message has come just to reinforce this social and political role that the Catholic Church does all the time. I am convinced that the church will remobilise to counter the political bodies that do not want to serve the people.

His message “All reconciled in Jesus Christ 

Catholic Christians and the Congolese people received the Holy Father’s message “All reconciled in Jesus Christ” as an invitation to national cohesion. The Pope’s apostolic journey was seen as a favourable moment to give more importance to what makes a nation strong. 

“Faced with so many challenges, the DR Congo, like a wounded man, abandoned to himself, seeks to heal its wounds of corruption, inter-ethnic conflicts, tribalism, insecurity carried by internal armed groups and those from abroad. The Congolese people, in their ethnic, geographical and cultural diversity, are called upon to root themselves in Christ as the vertebrae connect to the spine. The various tribes and ethnic groups that make up the Congolese people are called upon to enrich themselves with their differences and to share what is best in each of them,” says CENCO.

 “It is a message of peace and reconciliation that Pope Francis has come to bring to DR Congo. All his speeches and homilies, with the very rich symbols expressed, were centred around “peace”. He marked out the path to peace.

L'articolo <strong>Time for impact assessment</strong> proviene da InsideOver.

Reportage / Society 09.06.2020

The Diseases of Others

Ebola, malaria, cholera and HIV. Names which appear so distant, in time and space. Names which sometimes appear on the news or in brief articles. Malaria and tuberculosis: diseases which don’t concern us, associated with far-off Countries, poverty stricken and…

Ivo Saglietti

Ebola, malaria, cholera and HIV. Names which appear so distant, in time and space. Names which sometimes appear on the news or in brief articles. Malaria and tuberculosis: diseases which don’t concern us, associated with far-off Countries, poverty stricken and corrupt, with few hospitals and little interest for human life. Diseases which afflict Africa and Asia. Not us. We are the first world, where everything works well. We are rich, happy and above all, indifferent. We have too many holidays and too many, often useless, items to buy.

In 2018, 228 million cases of malaria were registered. The number of deaths? Over 405,000, of which 67% were children under the age of five. Not many know that malaria is the primary cause of infant deaths. Malaria is transmitted by infected female mosquitoes feeding off blood. They come out at dusk and during the night. The disease’s symptoms are fever, pain, vomit, convulsions and coma. 90% of cases are registered in Africa. It has taken over 30 years of research to find a vaccine, which however is not giving great results. The attempt to use insecticides to stop mosquitoes propagating has merely increased the parasites’ resistance. In 2019, Burundi counted almost 8,500 cases out of a population of 12 million.

In 2017 there were an estimated 10 million cases of tuberculosis (TB) in the world causing over 1.7 million deaths. One million children were sick with the illness, 230,000 of them died. Every hour in Europe 30 people are diagnosed with the disease and in Italy there are approximately 4,000 cases.

In the last century it was considered a stigma. In actual fact, TB, or Koch’s bacillus, is the poverty disease par excellence, breaking out in places with poor sanitary conditions and a lack of diagnostic equipment and treatment. TB is one of the world’s major causes of death and is transmitted via the oral cavity and/or saliva droplets. Patients are forced to live months of isolation in sanatoriums, as I documented in Uzbekistan. Places of boredom and solitude. The hours never going by, and the memory of one’s loved ones hanging framed in a photograph.

It is estimated there are 38 million people in the word living with the HIV virus. Of these 1.7 million are children. In 2018, 770,000 victims were registered. While the virus exploded in the 1980s the disease already existed, but its symptoms were confused with other syndromes. The fact that it manifested itself in homosexuals and people making use of heroin meant that some saw it as a divine punishment. Others went even further, suggesting that it had originated in a secret laboratory which had lost control of it. Initially a deadly disease, HIV was considered a pandemic, and while in 1986 a combination of medicines which stopped it was discovered, contagion still cannot be prevented.

Transmission of the virus from mother to child has caused the number of orphans here to increase to 15 million, 90% of the world’s total. Following the fall of the Berlin wall, the virus spread to Russia and in 2018 the number of infected reached the dramatic total of 1.2 million people, prevalently young people.

In Europe infection has continued to increase: the idea that it is possible to recover, the absence of rapid diagnosis and the media’s and governments’ indifference have generated a false sense of security which then develops into carelessness. In Uganda I saw how people die, how devastating the disease is and the ferociousness with which it attacks, especially women and children. On that occasion, for the first time, I thought how useless my job was and how little my photographs could do to help.

L'articolo The Diseases of Others proviene da InsideOver.

For weeks now, information on the Coronavirus has appeared in every newspaper and headlined almost every news programme. The 2019 nCoV virus, traced back to a seafood market in Wuhan, China, has spread worldwide. The ever-changing figures currently suggest nearly 10,000 people are infected with a death toll of 213, all in China.

The World Health Organization has declared it a global health emergency and preventive measures are being taken worldwide to try and curb the infection and contain the epidemic.

Flights connecting Italy to the Celestial Empire have been suspended, while the increasingly aggressive and insidious disease becomes an obsessive fear and nightmare for its population. Events and gatherings have been cancelled, with medical personnel and civil protection on alert at airports. It is now commonplace to see people with their faces covered by masks on public transport. In Italy, there are currently only two cases of Coronavirus registered and these were two Chinese tourists in Rome. S0, while there is not much to say about the spread of infection in the Bel Paese, there is plenty to say about pandemic paranoia and mass hysteria.

However, the question now arises as to why there is so much scaremongering and media interest in the Chinese virus, yet no global coverage or attention for the more lethal viruses silently wiping out the population of sub-Saharan Africa? The most obvious, almost rhetorical, and cynically realistic answer is that epidemics sweeping the African continent do not currently represent a global threat, and are, therefore, of no interest. Axiom aside, the statistics need to be reviewed to recognise that even infections are treated hierarchically: category A diseases and category B diseases. And the selection is not down to either the mortality rate or the virus’s ability to replicate.

Deciding if a disease is of interest or not rests solely on whether the affected citizens reside in the planet’s north or south.

To better understand this observation, we need to address three viruses each currently causing a global epidemic. First is the Coronavirus, which is the subject of ongoing discussion. Next we have Ebola which, over the course of 18 months, has been wiping out the eastern regions of the DRC. lastly is measles which, in the very same country, has already caused the death of 4,000 people.

Beyond what has already been said about the Coronavirus, we need to add that contagiousness in the healthy population is between 1.5 and 2.5, that is, a person with symptoms can statistically infect another one and a half people, similar to seasonal flu. In addition, the disease does not affect children, or at least only mildly. Of the first 425 infections in Wuhan, nobody was in fact less than 15 years old and the New England Journal of Medicine has clarified as such.

Children might be less likely to become infected or, if infected, may show milder symptoms.

Additionally, the mortality rate was below 3% and the people who died from the virus were mainly the elderly or patients already suffering from chronic illnesses.

By contrast in Africa where, Ebola is historically the first epidemic in a war context, spreading since August 2018, the second for the number of people infected and the most ruthless for the number of stricken children. The infection, the most lethal virus in the world, has already affected over 3,400 people. With deaths of over 2,200, the mortality rate is around 70%, with 30% of the victims being children. These are chilling numbers and make for frightening reading, yet, the Ebola epidemic that is overwhelming people in the DRC does not seem to cause concern. The last time the media spoke about it, on a major scale, was in July when the first case of Ebola occurred in the city of Goma. Rwanda closed their border with the Congo and the World Health Organization proclaimed an international emergency. The measles infection in this same Great Lakes country seemed to raise even less interest, despite having caused 200,000 infections and 4,000 deaths from 2018 to the present day, with 90% being children.

This information shows a clear discrepancy in media coverage and attention towards the three epidemics, and the “two viruses, two standards” tagline is telling in how the world increasingly looks through a prism of “us and them” and “one side or the other”; a mindset of analysing and viewing our contingent that, in 2020, has the characteristics of a silent disease with no effective vaccine against it.

Translation by Natalie Payne

L'articolo Two Viruses And Two Standards proviene da InsideOver.

L'articolo Ebola Nightmare proviene da InsideOver.

In the city of Beni you also find stories of those who survived ebola. Men, women and children who have managed to get saved from the deadliest disease in the world. Their testimonies are permeated by pain and a desire for redemption, as Kabibale Vianey tells us: he is now immune to the virus and has decided to work as a nurse to help the other patients, or Claude, who graduated while in the Treatment Centre. Often, however, the pain does not abandon even those who have survived: Roseline Lukambo tells us that because of the disease she has lost her entire family and now she lives stigmatized and threatened because she is accused of being the ploughman and the cause of death of her loved ones.

L'articolo Ebola, The Outbreak- PART 4 proviene da InsideOver.

The Ebola epidemic in Congo has caused the death of more than 2000 people in just one year, and 30% of the victims are children. In the city of Beni, funerals never stop, with 15-20 burials a day. Funeral ceremonies are the moments in which people are most at risk of contagion and for this reason very strict safety measures must be taken. Funerals are also where the pain and sense of abandonment that overwhelm the Congolese population become most palpable, as during the funeral of Liliane, a little 3-years-old girl who died because of the infection.

L'articolo Ebola, The Outbreak – PART 3 proviene da InsideOver.

The Ebola virus is the deadliest known. The mortality rate, around 67%, is among the highest ever recorded and although new therapeutic treatments and an experimental vaccine have been introduced, the infection does not stop and the World Health Organization has proclaimed international state of emergency. Ebola disease, originated among the wild animals, spreads by direct contact with any body fluid of an infected person. The incubation lasts from 2 to 21 days and then, once manifested, initially brings fever, migraine, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, while progressing it causes internal bleeding, collapse of organs and apparatus and, finally, death. In the Treatment Center where the sick are hospitalized there is a race against time to save lives, but infections and deaths are continuous.

L'articolo Ebola, The Outbreak – PART 2 proviene da InsideOver.

The city of Beni, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is the epicenter of an Ebola epidemic that, from August 2018 until today, has caused more than 2,000 deaths and over 3,000 infections. The days, in the heart of the infection, are marked by reports of new cases of infections and continuous deaths: each day from 15 up to 20 funeral are celebrated. Threatening the lives of the communities that populate the eastern regions of the African country, however, there is also a permanent state of war. The violence perpetrated by irregular groups and rebel militias does not stop, even now, as in the small village of Erengeti, where a group of insurgents opened fire on civilians causing a massacre.

L'articolo Ebola, The Outbreak – PART 1 proviene da InsideOver.

Cobalt is a rare element, nicknamed ‘blue gold’ because of its high value and extensive uses. Major electronics and vehicle manufacturers use it in the manufacturing of lithium-ion battery which powers laptops, mobile phones, electric cars and tablets.

It is also used to fabricate hot parts of jet engines, gas turbines, and magnetic steel. But this has come at a price for many citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Africa, who have been exposed to child labour and human right violations.

DR Congo accounts for at least 60% of worldwide cobalt and has about 50% of known global cobalt reserves. Other cobalt producing countries include Russia, Cuba, Philippines, Brazil, Australia, and Canada. In 2018 DRC alone produced 160,000 metric tonnes of cobalt, while the entire EU produced only 2,300 metric tonnes.

Since cobalt forms an essential element in the lithium-ion battery for electric vehicles and electronics, a report by the RCS Global forecasts that “The next few years will see worldwide consumption of cobalt rise significantly as demand from the electric vehicle market comes online.” It further predicts that by 2020, over three-quarters of all such batteries in the world will contain cobalt.

The demand for cobalt is being driven by the growing need for clean and renewable energy

According to the RCS report, unless a visible substitute is found, the demand for cobalt will continue to rise drastically. It is, for this reason, the Joint Research Centre in a report presented to EU Raw Material Week in Brussels warned that “steps must be taken to boost supply and curb demand without hindering the growth in electric vehicles .”

Although there are other substitutes, none can be compared by cobalt which is preferred by manufacturers because it makes batteries to produce more power and to last longer.

But as the demand keeps on rising, more focus and pressure has been placed on cobalt in the DR Congo to satisfy global market needs. This is because there is little coming from other cobalt producing countries in the world.

However, this could also be sustaining human rights abuses, according to Joshua Rosenzweig, Strategy Advisor on Business and Human Rights at Amnesty International. Children and adults working in cobalt mining sites in DR Congo have been subjected to abuses and exploitation by big mining companies and Chinese middlemen who are capitalising on the demand to make huge profits.

An investigation conducted by Amnesty International in 2016, found that cobalt mined by adults and children in horrendous conditions in the DRC is entering the supply chains of some of the world’s biggest brands such as Apple and BMW.

“When we approached these companies we were alarmed to find out that many were failing to ask basic questions about where their cobalt comes from,” said Seema Joshi, Head of Business and Human Rights at Amnesty International.

Most cobalt mines are located in the province of Katanga and are owned by the Chinese. Amnesty International documented children and adults mining cobalt in narrow makeshift tunnels, which were at risk of collapsing anytime. They didn’t have protective gear putting them at risk of skin diseases and lung infections. UNICEF estimates 40,000 children work in slave-like condition in cobalt mines across the country.

Cobalt is such a dangerous element to both human beings and animals. According to The Daily Mail,” even simply eating vegetables grown in local soil can cause diarrhoea and vomiting, thyroid damage and fatal lung diseases, while fish and birds cannot survive in the area.”

Since most of the cobalt is mined by hand, the children are exposed to toxic dust which apart from damaging the eyes, can also cause skin disease and a deadly lung infection. The UN estimates that around 80 children die in the mines every year, but the number could even be higher since many go unregistered after being buried underground by the collapsing tunnels.

The children interviewed by Amnesty International complained how the job was difficult. They said they work up to 12 hours a day for a payment of only one to two dollars a day. “Even the children who went to school worked 10-12 hours during the weekend and school holidays. and the time before and after school.”

One of the children named Paul aged 14 said he started working in underground mining tunnels when he was just 12. He said he would often spend 24 hours down the tunnels. “I arrived in the morning and would leave the following morning,” he said.

Other children said that the work exposed them to extreme conditions. “There is lots of dust, it is very easy to catch colds, and we hurt all over,” said Dany. The children also complained that at times they are assaulted by security men guarding the mines, while girls as young as ten are subjected to sexual attacks at the mines.

One former child miner called, Kongolo Mashingamano Reagen narrated his ordeal to the Financial Times, saying, “It was very tiring, very difficult. I watched too many collapses. I have seen children dying in the mines.” Despite spending his day carrying 25 kg sacks of cobalt, Kongolo wasn’t paid but received only food and accommodation as his wages. Ziki Swaze another child miner told CBS that he works at the mine to support his family since his parents died.

Cobalt has also brought health risks to the locals. One doctor in the village of Kempsa told SKY News that many children are born with mysterious diseases in what he believes is a result of cobalt. “There are lots of infections they’re born with, sometimes rashes, sometimes their bodies are covered in spots,” he said.

Such abuses and risks prompted human rights organisations like Amnesty International to put pressure on major vehicle and electronic manufacturing companies to prove that they are not profiting from the misery of miners working in terrible conditions in the DRC. “The energy solutions of the future must not be built on human rights abuses, ” said Amnesty International.

The organisation, however, still feels that the electronics and electric vehicle companies are still not doing enough to stop abuses entering their cobalt supply chains, three years after it exposed how their products could be linked to child labour in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“Nearly two years on, some of the richest and most powerful companies in the world are still making excuses for not investigating their supply chains. Even those who are investigating are failing to disclose the human rights risks and abuses they find. If companies are in the dark about where their cobalt comes from, so are their customers,” said the organisation’s spokesman.

Ideally, companies have an individual responsibility to identify, prevent, address and account for human rights abuses in their cobalt supply chains in the DR Congo.

To assess how companies are becoming responsible, Amnesty assessed electronic and vehicle companies on five criteria that reflect international standards. They included the requirement that “companies carry out what are known as “due diligence” checks on their supply chain and the requirement that they are transparent about the associated human rights risks.”

The assessment report revealed that Apple is currently the industry leader in terms of cobalt sourcing, and was working with its cobalt supplier in DR Congo, to identify and address child labour. The report also observed that “Dell and HP have shown signs of potential. They have begun to investigate their supply links, and have in place some of the stronger policies for detecting human rights risks and abuses in their cobalt supply chains.”

Among electric car manufacturers, the survey ranked BMW as the best although there were areas that needed improvement. “It has made some improvements to its supply chain policies and practices concerning cobalt, but still has not disclosed its smelters and refiners. It also has no plans to disclose any assessments of its smelters’ human rights due diligence practices.”

However, fighting child labour and other abuses in the DR Congo cobalt mines, cannot be fought by human rights organisations alone. It also requires action and commitment from the government.

Following intentional outcry generated by the Amnesty report of 2016, DR Congo government came up with a plan to remove children from all artisanal mines by 2025. This will be very difficult to achieve because of the state of the economy of the country. Many children choose to work at the mines to provide for themselves and their families since their parents are unemployed or have very little income.

Unless the economy is stabilised, free education provided and jobs created, more children and adults will continue to be exploited and abused at the mines. Tough regulatory measures will also have to be put in place to protect those living around and those working in cobalt mining sites.

L'articolo Is Your Phone Being Powered by Child Labour in the Democratic Republic of Congo? proviene da InsideOver.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is on the spot again after the outbreak of the world’s largest and fastest moving measles epidemic with over 203,000 cases reported throughout the country. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), around 5,000 people have been killed after the disease spread to all the 26 regions in the country.

The number of deaths caused by measles now surpasses that of people killed by Ebola in the last 15 months. Relief Web states that so far, children under the age of five have accounted for 74 per cent of the infections and nearly 90 per cent of deaths.

It is not the first time that deadly epidemics have occurred in DRC. On 12th October this year, the country’s government officially declared a cholera epidemic, after over 20,000 cases were reported in nearly all the provinces. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals that the DRC alone accounts for an estimated “189,000 (5% – 14%) of the 1.34 – 4.01 million cholera cases worldwide annually.”

These are all happening at a time when the country continues to battle with its tenth outbreak of Ebola in 40 years. It is that largest Ebola outbreak in the country’s history and the second biggest in the world after the one that occurred in West Africa during 2014/2016. The epidemic has been mainly in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the North-Eastern part of the country where a multinational team of medics have been trying to combat the spread of the virus.

More than 1000 Ebola cases were reported in the first eight months of the epidemic but between April and June this year, the number had doubled to 2000. According to Medicine San Frontiers, the number of new cases are still being reported at an average rate of 50 per week, although it is a significant drop from the initial rate of 100 cases per week.

DRC is also known as the country where HIV/AIDS virus originated from after it was transmitted to human beings from chimpanzees. Research published in Science, notes that the capital Kinshasa was the epicentre of the virus that later went pandemic. With time, the number of infections grew and the virus spread across the vast Congo Basin, and to other continents. Researchers mainly blame Congo’s rapidly expanding colonial transportation for playing a great role in the spread of the virus.

So why is the DRC  so susceptible to major outbreaks of diseases?

It is as a result of many years of war that led to mass poverty and a dysfunctional healthcare system. DR Congo is a failed state which means that it cannot address these problems by providing basic human services such as access to clean water, good houses, security and medical care which are key in preventing outbreak and the spread of diseases.

For example, the UN estimates that 51 million or three-quarters of the DRC’s population have no access to clean safe drinking water despite the country holding half of Africa’s water reserves. And according to UNICEF, 70 million residents do not have access to improved toilets, latrines or sewerages.  This may explain why there are repeated outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera.

DRC’s budget is only $6 billion and only 1.2% of it is allocated to healthcare by the government. That is a drop in the ocean considering that it has a population of 85 million whose average life expectancy is estimated to be around 35 to 45 years. Before the civil war, the country had a stable economy and was known all over Africa for its extensive network of clinics, quality of physicians, and excellent primary health care system.

However, the political and economic turmoil of the last 30 years has impacted negatively on this system. Medical facilities don’t have enough workforce and equipment, and often run out of critical medicine and supplies. It is estimated that almost 70 per cent of DRC citizens have little or no access to health care.

Hygienic and sanitary conditions of medical facilities are deplorable and do not meet the standards set by WHO. A report published in the Journal of Nursing and Palliative Care Services states that “The presence of filthy conditions observed in some hospitals and national health centres is a delicate issue” and that some hospitals that cannot afford to hire professional cleaners have resorted to using mentally ill men to collect garbage and to clean public toilets and morgues .

Furthermore, some hospital buildings are dilapidated and in an utter state of neglect. In some instances, patients are forced to sleep on the floor because of the lack of mattresses and beds. Most hospitals depend on the electric energy supplied by the national electricity company to carry out key medical procedures such as surgeries. But frequent power outages have left many of them unable to offer diagnoses and treatments. Reports reveal that some childbirth and surgical procedures are executed with the spotlight because of frequent power blackouts.

The country’s infrastructure such as road systems, transportation services and telecommunication are also in a poor state after decades of civil war. Poor roads have made it difficult for those in emergencies to access medical facilities and for medical personnel to reach out to those in need of medical services. Statistics indicate that over 70% of deaths are reported before patients reach hospitals.

Although the richest country in Africa in terms of natural resources, DRC remains one of the poorest countries in the world with most of its population surviving on a wage of under one dollar per day. In 2015 it was ranked as the poorest country in the world by the Global Finance Magazine based on its GDP Per Capita over the year 2009-2013. This means that the government cannot afford to run a national health insurance scheme to insure the population against costs of healthcare.

Therefore those who require medical treatment have to pay from their own pockets. In a country where only 20% are in employment earning an average of $394.25 a year, those who cannot afford hospital fees have resorted to unconventional methods of treatment whenever they fall sick. But even those who manage to go to hospitals are charged high fees and are forced to buy their products such as syringes and gloves before they are treated.

Another factor playing a great role in the spread and outbreak of diseases is the country’s extensive forest cover. The swathes of forests are home to different species of animals such as baboons, gorillas, chimpanzees and bats that are known to harbour deadly viruses. Because of human activities, people living in areas near the forests do come in regular contact with infected animals, thus setting in motion the transmission cycle.

For instance, scientists believe that HIV viruses had crossed into humans early in the 20th century, as a result of people hunting and eating infected primates such as chimpanzees. “This happened not once but many times, putting into circulation in the local human population a host of different HIV viruses, including both the HIV-1 and HIV-2 types,” said Oliver Pybus, an evolutionary biologist and infectious disease specialist at the University of Oxford.

Apart from hunting and eating game meat, deforestation is another human activity that has put people into direct contact with infected wild animals.

The only solution out of these regular epidemics is finding peace and stability, strengthening the healthcare system, and the reduction of human activities such as deforestation and hunting that put human beings in direct contact with infected wild animals.

L'articolo Why the World Should Expect More Epidemics in the DR Congo proviene da InsideOver.