From Gareth Graham, working for Save The Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

There is an elemental intensity to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province in eastern DR Congo - the main city in what is often referred to as a forgotten war.

Nyiragongo volcano, asleep since 2002, smoulders all day and glowers ominously red in the night.

A one kilometre-wide lava flow imposes through the centre of town, over which motorbikes and humanitarian 4 x 4s bobble incessantly and kick black dust into the air.

Extreme poverty, street children, virtually non-existent infrastructure, babies on backs, the constant chug of overloaded military vehicles coming back from or heading out into the hills.

Those same hills, so stunningly beautiful from afar, mirroring in Lake Kivu, are currently the battleground for a conflict whose consequences have been all too familiarly disastrous in a region which is no stranger to war, displacement, and, ultimately, needless suffering and death.

I have not been in North Kivu for a long time, but long enough to recognise some things as distressingly common: fighting erupts near one town, prompting most of the population to grab what they can and flee; soldiers from all sides of the conflict harass, abuse, rape and sometimes kill innocent civilians; children, who in most other countries would be in school, are running away from forced recruitment; mass displacement of terrified, weary, tired, people creates huge spontaneous camps with unspeakably bad sanitary conditions, plastic sheets for cramped housing and a meal a day – that is for the lucky ones.

The humanitarian community – United Nations and a hatful of NGOs – is desperately trying to respond to an avalanche of human problems – this war has no respect for human rights and it ravages one of the world's least developed places.

The result is catastrophic and there is work to be done.

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Comments

[Justin, Buckinghamshire 7 Nov 2007 13:42:51]

The sheer scale of world poverty never ceases to astonish. The term shocking does not do justice. Some seek to enjoy life, others seek to survive life.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the larger land mass and populated African countries. It has its share of problems, natural and man-made, including an active volcano, a lake with poison gas, a large influx of Rwandan refugees, and internal conflicts. It is also a country that has much fertile land, a wealth of minerals, including diamonds, and river ports to assist trade. On paper this African nation should be doing well.

With vicious ethnic conflicts, military style dictatorships and corruption at all levels, some African countries seem to be their own worst enemies. Many are having real problems feeding, sheltering and protecting their own people. Perhaps we Europeans, in the past so quick to colonise and benefit from the African continent, have a duty to assist in any way we can - not just humanitarian aid, but any type of aid.

[Ian England 2 Nov 2007 09:31:08]

Another list of human rights abuses being ignored by the world. So many "celebrities" are willing to rush to the aid of dolphins in Japan, play crying and wailing for the cameras to bring attention to this "sickening and barbaric" act. Yet where are they when it comes to this human tradgedy? Perhaps it is not cool or trendy enough to be seen to care about children, men and women who are being raped and killed on a daily basis.

[Khalid 1 Nov 2007 17:50:48]

The sad fact Im afraid is that whilst on screen many a world leader sings a "Sweet Lullaby" they more often than not remove themselves from the real life "Enigma" of their greed and lavishing powers. As save the children has benefited many a child, I just hope leaders will look back at their life and ask themsleves what if? and put an end to not just this war on children but many if not all political conflicts that result in the innocent being unfailry and inhumanely dispursed.

[Michael England 1 Nov 2007 11:26:52]

Liberalism has made possible the return to African life-styles: conflict and low productivity. Now the artifically inflated populations of "colonial times" cannot be sustained by traditional culture, and we are wirnesses a return to the ancient levels - painful, but inevitable: Mugabe grasps this truth well. Removing the checks on African population growth only compounds the problem and increases the ultimate numbrs suffering: So: Save the Children: it is high time to come home and get on with something more useful and stop your sentimentality from denying reality.