Hunger is killing many people in Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of them. Poverty has taken over DRC. There are many reasons behind this Poverty. Poverty in DRC is affecting the people in many ways. Some people are dying of hunger, also suffering because of less jobs, less education etc.
In the article called the “Poorest Country in the World: Democratic Republic Of Congo”, The author Janki Kaswala says that, “More than almost 90 percent of the conflict’s victims, however, died due to a lack of access to shelter, water, food and medicine – all severely aggravated by displaced and overcrowded populations iving in unsanitary conditions. Not to mention, 47 percent of deaths were children under 5 and some 45,000 children continue to die each month. ” This is a great fact to prove how hard life is for a regular person in DRC. The government is unable to help DRC.
The main causes of poverty in DRC is the government which created the war and that lead to poverty. Democratic Republic of Congo has been one of the civil war and corruption. According from the article ” The Borgen Project RSS2″ ” 1950 to 1970 the Soviet Union was in a cold war with United States, Which created some small independent countries which formed Belgian Congo. After their independence in 1960, the country immediately faced another war. On July 5th Congo soldiers who were names as Congolese National Army, stood against their white Belgian commander and wanted higher positions and payments.
It quickly spread all over Congo and violence broke across the nation. Then Belgian brought troops to control the situation without any permission from either Kasavubu and Lumumba who were the president and the prime minister of the country at that moment. After that, the Congolese soldiers requested united nation to bring troops and remove the Belgian troops. Since then it has been over four ears Congo has been trying to solve the problem. The war is affected the economy because of many reasons. When there is a war it is natural for all the constitution, job, schools and colleges to shut down.
During a war all the industries shut down, because there are a lot of fighting and lack of organizing, Which affects the economy. If the industries shut down all the worker lose their jobs too. This creates a big problem among the citizens, because no money which means lack of food, clothes, education, and people become homeless. Food is a major problem in DRC. In the book called Countries and Their Cultures, ritten by Melvin Ember and Carol R. Ember said that, “Food is not necessarily a part of daily live.
And, when food is available, it usually does not contain the vitamins and minerals required to help ward off disease and maintain proper health” (P. 506-522). This proves that DRC cannot afford enough nutritious food for everybody. This completely makes sense, because in the news, televisions, articles is online we always see how many African people are dying because of lack of food. The lack of food comes from the lack of money. Therefore, the war has affected the economy. The trading with other countries also stops because ther countries do not want to get involved with the criminals.
Because of the war, other countries are afraid to trade their goods. The war causes poverty which creates criminals. The criminals create a problem with trading, because, the country in war cannot trade back since the industries would be closed. If the trading stops the country can become even more helpless. According to the article “Diamond Mining and Conflict” mentioned “Rebel forces control some of the areas where diamonds are extracted and consequently, have become players in the mining game, extracting the diamonds, selling hem illegally, and using the money to fund their insurgent activities”.
This proves that a lot of diamonds that grow in Congo are being sold illegally and the money is being used for illegal purposes. This can create a big threat for other countries because their products can be stolen too if they send them to Congo. This prevents them from trading. Trading is a big thing for a country to stand up. Through trading a country can get food, clothes and other important equipments to live. Therefore, the war creates lack of trading which creates poverty. War has created massive destruction with industries therefore a ot of people lost their jobs.
In the article called education and jobs, it is stated that, “Fighting over the last few decades has destroyed many public buildings. In rural areas, this means there may be just one school for every five villages. There is also a severe shortage of trained teachers. ” This proves that IN DRC there are not a lot of schools for all the kids to attend to. So, if the kids cannot go to schools they would become uneducated and cannot have a job. There also not a lot of teacher to teach because they are not educated enough. This is a big problem in Congo, because no jobs and education means no money.
If we think about it, in the America every child is required to go to school so that they can grow up and have a job. But, in DRC children do not even have enough schools to go to. Therefore the war again made people to lose jobs and education which brought poverty. The war caused them to continue to be poor because it is hard for the people to gain everything they have lost. The lack of education and schools are leaving many children uneducated and they are growing up without knowing how to read and write. Now even if after DRC try to stand in a better position, the lack of education in people would cause a roblem.
There would not be any workers to help with the jobs because they are not educated enough to help. Also, the criminal acts are not decreasing at any rate. The criminals are taking over DRC’s all natural resources and selling them illegally which is not helping the country and decreasing the amount of natural resources. So, even if DRC wants to hold a higher position they would not have enough left to trade with other countries to gain wealth. The war caused them to lose everything that was valuable to them. They had to gain it slowly over many years. This is why they cannot overcome the poverty.
In the final analysis, the government could not control the war and the war brought poverty and now they are unable to overcome the depression. By knowing how DRC is going through poverty and cannot overcome, one can help them to stand up again. All my examples helped me to support one point which was the cause of DRC’s poverty. There are still a lot of people who are dying every day. Without any kind of help they would not be able to recover the damage. If some of the richest country in the world try to help them, there would be some improvements. In the end, the poverty that started from a war has left the whole country suffering.