Abstract

PIP: This article highlights the crisis experienced in the beleaguered Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The peace talks to be conducted beginning January 20, 2000, will focus on the near-total collapse of health services and the impending humanitarian megacatastrophe in the country. The two civil wars for the past decades have resulted in an essentially bankrupt health sector and a widespread inaccessibility of basic health care. On December 1999, the UN Security Council president described the situation as the major challenge facing Africa, the UN, and the international community. Reports continue of outbreaks of epidemic infections, including vaccine-preventable diseases and hemorrhagic fevers, and unchecked diseases such AIDS, malaria, and sleeping sickness. On the other hand, the chronic malnutrition rate was reported to be as high as 31%, with some cities on the brink of famine. In addition, life expectancy has fallen by 5 years and maternal mortality has doubled, with hundreds of thousands of displaced people in refugee camps unable to sustain themselves. The meeting on January 10, 2000, will tackle the AIDS epidemic in Africa, and the DRC will be the major test of this policy, since its infection rate reached 4.35% in 1997. The withdrawal of international cooperation, which was blamed for worsening the situation, was refuted by another author stating that war and political violence killed the people.