Horror of Congo's forgotten war
Updated on 27 March 2008
45,000 people are killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo every month in a war which was supposed to have ended five years ago. Jonathan Miller reports.
The war formally ended five years ago - but the fighting didn't. It just carried on, ignored by much of the world.
One shocking statistic: every single month 45,000 people are killed. The Democratic Republic of Congo remains one of the most dangerous and isolated places on earth.
The accompanying video contains photographs and film which offer a rare insight into Africa's forgotten war. They show the suffering of civilians and the use of rape as a weapon of war - against children as young as two.
The Democratic Republic of Congo remains one of the most dangerous and isolated places on earth.
Congo's recent history had offered hope: a fresh peace deal agreed in January between the Congolese government and the majority of the rebel groups operating in the eastern Kivu region, next door to Rwanda.
The aim was to end months of violence that has displaced tens of thousands of people. But many of the rebel groups who signed the deal have been blamed for the continuing atrocities.
One of the most notorious of them - the FDLR, or Interahamwe - did not participate in the act of engagement deal. The FDLR is made up of Hutus who crossed the border after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
Photographer Susan Schulman has just returned from north Kivu with still and filmed footage, along with other material from Michel Peremans of Medecins Sans Frontieres.
