Congo: Showing the war in Congo

A videographic mapping the war in Congo over the past 15 years A EUROPEAN military force might yet be sent to eastern Congo in addition to an expanded United Nations peacekeeping force. This week the government of Belgium, the former colonial power in Congo, said that it would be willing to contribute soldiers to a European force. Ongoing conflict in the east of Congo has worsened this year as a dissident Tutsi general, Laurent Nkunda, who has close ties to the Rwandan government, has launched an assault in the region. Although Mr Nkunda has backed away from threats to attack Goma, the main city in the east, the lot of hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians remains desperate. Congo is now at the bottom of global measures of both health and wealth, behind even Rwanda, its troublesome neighbour. To get an idea of the background to the conflict in Congo, you can now watch a short videographic here —a combination of moving maps and charts—and listen to an accompanying narrative that tells a history of the past 15 years in which millions of people have died. ...