The Crisis in the Congo

Since 1997, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been engaged in a series of conflicts that have become known as Africa World War I. This conflict has involved 8 different countries and up to 25 different rebel groups. The war has had a high toll on the civilian population of Congo, resulting in 5. 4 million deaths, the highest death toll of any war since World War II. The violent rape of women has been another mark of this conflict. Women for Women International recently stated "The sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world". The UN in March 2005 described eastern Congo as "the worst humanitarian crises in the world".

The crisis finds its roots in the spillover of the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda. The flight of the interhamwe (the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwanda genocide) into eastern Congo was the spark that ignited eastern Congo's complex crises. Much of the war has been fueled by the desire of invading foreign armies and rebel groups to gain control over Congo's vast resources. Congo, roughly the size of Western Europe, is per square mile, the most resource rich country in the world.

Peace agreements and elected governments have stabilized large parts of the country, but the three eastern provinces of Ituri, North Kivu (of which Goma in the provincial capital. HEAL Africa hospital where the quilts are shipped to is located in Goma) and South Kivu are embattled by a number of various rebel groups still terrorizing the area. The UN states that 1000 people still die per day in Congo as a direct or indirect result of the war and over 800,000 people have been displace by the fighting. While the city of Goma remains stable due to the large UN presence based their (the largest UN peace keeping mission in the world), the surrounding areas in North Kivu are now the epicenter for the resurgence of fighting in the region.