The country of Congo, known as the heart of Africa, is one of the richest countries due to its abundance of natural 
resources like gold, copper, lithium and oil. Despite having all this wealth, it is among the five poorest
countries in the world. For over two decades the people of Congo have been massacred before the eyes of
the international community.

 Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been the site of decades long
protracted conflict, with armed groups fighting to access and control its natural resources. Civilians
have been caught in between facing attacks, repeated displacement and increasingly dire conditions in camps,

particularly around Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Since January 2025, fighting between M23/ AFC ( Alliance Fleuve Congo), the Congolese army and their
respective allies has escalated. People are reportedly being displaced. Over 8 million people have been
displaced across DRC, including 500,000 who have been displaced by the current fighting since January
2025. How can such a tragedy come about? To understand the Democratic Republic of Congo’s recent

history of war, we have to go back to the1990s when the country was called Zaire.

Congo has been a scene of bloody, international conflicts, wars, fight over power, money and the
country’s resource wealth since 1996.The perpetrators of these crime are the countless hundreds of
rebel movements, war lords, Congolese soldiers and use of rape as a weapon of war. These crimes have
been committed with impunity, mass graves have been uncovered and the number of victims in millions.

Mobutu Sese Seko has ruled the country since 1965 but the aging and strict dictator’s rule was coming
to an end when a tragedy took place in neighbouring Rwanda. Up to one million women, men and
children were massacred between April and July 1994. Most of them belonged to the Tutsi minority.The

genocide was committed by the army and malicious of Hutu extremist.

A Tutsi army formed in exile in Uganda in 1994 matched in Rwanda and put an end to the killings. A new
government was established in the capital Kigali. The Hutu feared and therefore crossed the border into
Eastern Zaire. Among those refugees were thousands of armed criminals, soldiers and Hutu malicious
fighters who were actively involved in the genocide. Refugees crowded the camps set up on the border
were forced to live in extreme conditions. The Hutu extremists imposed their law on the civilians.Their main
aim was to continue the war and eventually regain power. Those camps were a threat to Rwanda’s new
strong man, Paul Kagame and his ally Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni. Both Men warned the

international community about the situation. The international community did not act on the warning.

In October 1996, a coalition of Rwandan Tutsi soldiers, elements of the Ugandan army and the Zairian
rebels invaded the territory of Zaire. The diverse group called itself the alliance of Democratic forces for
the liberation of Congo.  's leader was Laurent – Désiré Kabila, a Congolese leader who has been an
opponent of president Mobutu for thirty years. He saw power in Kinshasa meanwhile President
Kagame’s  's main aim was to dismantle the camp, force the refugees to return to Rwanda and destroy the
malicious run by the perpetrators of the genocide. But no sooner had the AFDL Troup crossed the
borders, they carried out their first massacre. It took place in a hospital in the province of south Kivu. The
facility was run by Dennis Mukwege, then a young doctor.

The war which brought Laurent – Désiré Kabila and his Alliance des forces democratiques pour la
liberation du congo- cannot be seen in isolation. The current wars in Congo are not different to the wars
that have been witnessed in Congo for decades. In recent days, the rebel March 23 Movement ( M23),
with the support of Rwanda, has launched an offensive in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, further
exacerbating the region’s ongoing conflict. This escalation has resulted in loss of lives, displacements
and destruction. The region’s vast reserves of rare metals- such as coltan, uranium and tantalum, which
are essential for global technology and automotive industries, remain a key strategic interest. The
competition for these crucial resources, fuelled by global demand has an important role in shaping the

dynamic of the conflict, further increasing the instability and suffering in the region.

At least 40% of the world supply of tantalum is estimated to come from this part of the world. There are
reports that some of the main mining areas are now under the control of M23. According to the World
Health Organization, the ongoing conflict has claimed many victims including nearly three thousand
deaths and many injuries in the city of Goma alone. This has lead to collapse of the local health systems,
aggravating the humanitarian crisis with threat of epidemics from insufficient access to drinking water and

unsanitary conditions.

As of February 4th, 2025, the DRC Red Cross report says it has buried more than 2000 bodies, while 900
remain waiting in already saturated morgues. As often the case during conflicts, an increase in rapes and
other forms of gender- based violence perpetrated by armed men during clashes have  occurred in the city
of Goma, mainly against women and children. Further south, the city of Bukavu with a population of
over 500,000 people face similar dangers. Like other health care facilities in this war-torn region, the
staff of Panzi hospital, which is renowned for treating victims of gender based violence headed by a
Nobel Peace Prize winner Dennis Mukwege are threatened by verbal and physical assaults by the

warring parties, thus limiting access to health services.

Despite the efforts of Non government organizations like Medicins Sans Frontieres and the international
committee of the Red Cross, to support health facilities, the human toll of these resource driven conflicts
continue to be overlooked by the international community. The people of Congo urgently need peace

and it 's high time the united nations together with the Africa Union find ways to restore peace in Congo.