The Democratic Republic of Congo remains unstable 10 years after the formal end of the 1998-2002 civil war. As the various rebel groups continue to clash in the eastern provinces the local population continues to experience unimaginable suffering with some 400,000 displaced in North Kivu alone during 2007. The International Rescue Committee recently estimated that 5.4 million people lost there lives in Congo during the last 10 years, and some 45,000 people continue to die every month largely due to malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition and other preventable diseases. The numbers are staggering and make the Congo conflict the deadliest humanitarian crisis since World War II. As rebels begin to form new alliances there are fears that another round of fighting could be imminent.
