Focus on the DRC: All Eyes on the Congo?

Survivors of sexual violence in the Congo hold signs reading "do you want us also to take up arms?" (from trendsupdates.com)

Last Friday, to coincide with International Human Rights Day, the British global advisory firm, Maplecroft released the Human Rights Risk Atlas 2011. 196 countries were evaluated in the report and rated in 30 different categories. In all, 92 countries were ranked in the “extreme” and “high risk” categories. The Democratic Republic of Congo won the first spot. This is the 5^th consecutive year the report has been published.

The Congo popped up recently again in Time Magazine’s 2010 summation where mass rape in the country was named one of the top 10 underreported stories of the year:

“Limited international appetite for engagement with an apparently endless horror story has dimmed media focus on Congo, although the stakes in the fighting — control over reserves of gold and minerals like coltan, utilized in the production of cellular phones — give the story an intimate connection to the world economy.”

In some cases, increased international attention can complicate and worsen an already tense situation. Following Secretary Clinton’s 2009 trip to the DRC which was meant to put a focus on the issues of sexual and gender based violence, and the UN calling the DRC the “rape capital of the world” earlier this year, the extent of the abuses in the Congo are becoming more widely known.

Now with  Christmas approaching, nearly 20 humanitarian organization are calling on the international community and the UN to prevent a Christmastime massacre in the eastern Congo by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) like the ones that happened in 2008 and 2009, which killed an estimated 895 and 300 people respectively.

Do you think there will be a renewed interest in this forgotten conflict from the international community? What can be done to bring about greater awareness?