Take Action: Democratic Republic of Congo
According to Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian chief in DRC from 2003-06, casualties in Congo amount to "a tsunami every month, year in and year out, for the last six years." Yet since Egeland made this statement in 2005 about the crisis in Congo, the situation remains grim, and the Congolese people are being subjected to unrivaled brutality.
One of the largest countries in Africa, with an area the size of western Europe, Congo borders nine nations and every major region of the African continent. Abundant in natural resources, it has vast deposits of diamonds, oil, and gold. Despite these riches, Congo's more than 60 million people remain among the poorest in the world. The UN ranks it 168 out of 177 countries on its human development index—a measure of health, education, and standard of living.