Instability continues to rock the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). With the spread of the Ebola crisis, this war-plagued country is now facing a perfect storm of conflict and disease, leaving it teetering on the brink of catastrophe on multiple fronts. A combination of ethnic violence, armed group activity, medical emergencies, and political disarray keep the resource-rich land perpetually unstable and its civilian population vulnerable to atrocities.
Ebola epidemic
Congo has recently made headlines for its seemingly intractable Ebola crisis, which began a year ago and continues to spread at an alarming rate. Close to 1,800 people have died, and the outbreak continues to expand, making it the second-worst in history. On July 17, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a rare global health emergency — just the fifth time in its history that the WHO has made such a declaration. Initially, the cases were confined to northeastern DRC, which also happens to be the country’s most conflict-affected region, however the epidemic has now spread to the city of Goma, a city of 2 million people on the heavily traveled DRC-Rwanda border. While only three cases have been reported thus far in Goma, the neighboring countries of Uganda, where cases have already been confirmed, as well as South Sudan and Rwanda are bracing for potential infiltration.
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Despite the widespread use of an experimental but effective Ebola vaccine, stopping the outbreak has thus far been an abject failure. Containment efforts have encountered unprecedented challenges of attacks by rebel groups — both against local civilians and health centers — as well as staunch resistance by wary and untrusting community residents, some of whom falsely believe Ebola is a government conspiracy tool of repression.
Tip of the iceberg
The failure of the Ebola response is symptomatic of deeper, chronic issues impairing the DRC as a whole. Lack of leadership and rule of law have created a vacuum of governance where corruption and conflict are pervasive. New President Felix Tshisekedi has confirmed everyone’s worst fears that he would be unable to get out from under former president Joseph Kabila’s thumb in order to make the critical changes the country and its people so desperately need.
Map of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; North Kivu (orange) and Ituri (green).
The DRC’s government has been relatively powerless in stopping armed activity in the Kivus and Ituri, the epicenter of the epidemic. Over the past year alone there have been more than 170 attacks on health centers and aid workers by both armed groups and local people. A fierce but hidden power struggle within Congo’s government for control of the response has severely compromised its effectiveness.
Following the resignation of the country’s health minister, the containment effort will now be overseen by an expert committee reporting directly to President Tshisekedi. The new comprehensive strategy will reframe the epidemic as a regional humanitarian crisis and may include the usage of more troops or police to quell the murders and arson that have impeded service provision, as well as augmented community outreach and food aid to win over skeptical locals. There are also plans to deploy a second vaccine to form a protective “curtain” of immunity around outbreak areas.
If Jewish World Watch (JWW) has learned anything throughout our years working in fragile, atrocity-affected countries, true community engagement and empowerment is the key to resolving any crisis. Community leadership and mobilization is critical to stopping the spread, but this piece has been missing from the Ebola response to date. According to Amy Daffee, deputy country director for Mercy Corps in the DRC, “effective community mobilization requires financial support to communities at risk and investment in human capital — starting with a senior-level person whose responsibility would be to advocate for and ensure that community engagement is a cross-cutting element of the response, complementing the activities of all agencies involved.” Without a significant shift in how impacted communities are engaged in the response — so they are empowered as part of the solution — locals’ deep distrust of the government and health workers will prevent and real progress in beating the epidemic.
A country in crisis
Preoccupation with the Ebola outbreak has eclipsed other sources of instability in the country, though they are all connected by the common thread of governmental breakdown and corruption. Conflict continues to rage in areas where Ebola has been concentrated, causing large-scale displacements that render the entire Great Lakes region vulnerable to the disease. An average person in the war-torn areas of North Kivu and Ituri will have to flee four or five times in his or her lifetime. All of this displacement, both within and across Congo’s borders makes containment of Ebola’s spread exponentially more difficult.
In mid-June of this year, ethnic clashes between the Hema herder and Lendu farmer groups in Congo’s northeastern Ituri province triggered a new humanitarian crisis. A wave of militia attacks in Ituri left hundreds dead and roughly 300,000 displaced. A combination of killings, maimings, sexual violence and kidnapping catalyzed an unprecedented exodus from the area. Congo already has more than 4.5 million people displaced by conflict, but the crisis in Ituri added a new dimension to multiple challenges confronting the country in the northeast. The recent unrest in Ituri is emblematic of a deeper phenomenon spreading to more parts of the sprawling nation: a crippling combination of conflict, disease, displacement, governmental impotence, and hunger is ravaging the DRC.
Recent mass killings in Ituri compound long-term, systematic violence that has been pummeling North Kivu for years. The Islamic State has recently claimed a series of attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist rebel group founded in Uganda that now operates in Beni, one of the main Ebola-affected areas. Civilians bear the brunt of the violence, often subject to killings by unknown perpetrators. While many attacks have been attributed to the ADF, members of the local Nande population are skeptical, believing they are instead the target of an ethnic cleansing campaign hatched by former president Kabila and other regional players to maintain control over the resource-rich region via bloodshed.
Against this backdrop, communities grow resentful of increased support for Ebola response activities without commensurate efforts to strengthen security, address protection of civilians, and respond to other priority basic needs. Ebola is rightfully garnering attention, but it shouldn’t be the only thing the world should be watching in the Congo. There are deep, structural reasons why the Ebola epidemic is unfolding as it has been, and only by addressing these failures of governance, security, community building, and international engagement can Congo begin to emerge from this deadly combination of conflict and disease.
What role for the U.S.?
The United States has been the lead global funder in the Ebola response, having given around $136 million, but the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week it will need $324 million to fight the disease over the next six months. Beyond financial contributions to preparedness and response, the US’s role in fighting the epidemic has proven lackluster. The White House has kept the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) staff out of the outbreak zones, despite the critical expertise they could offer and pleas for help from the WHO. Now the US is hesitating about granting a waiver to Congo under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to allow it to access tens of millions of dollars that would help in the response.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA-37) have spearheaded efforts to circumvent these funding constraints and bolster the U.S.’s role in the Congo. The Ebola Eradication Acts, which are companion bills in the House and Senate, aim to immediately make multi-sectoral, non-humanitarian, and non-trade related foreign assistance available to the DRC through USAID.
With the imminent danger of the outbreak spreading to crowded urban areas and crossing multiple borders, the time for the US to step up is now. The US must lift restrictions on aid and enable the CDC to deploy its skills. It should also spur a new global effort, partnering with major investors in the Congo, like China. But, this increased role cannot exclusively be confined to Ebola response. It must be combined with stronger pressure for political reform, better government, and a high level of community building essential not only for the eradication of Ebola but for the future of the DRC.
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