DRC: U.N. Official Fears Congo Is Overcome by Violence

As his plane cut through the clouds above eastern Congo on Friday, John Holmes, the United Nations' top humanitarian official, looked down pensively at the miles and miles of thick forest covering one of the most chronically afflicted parts of Africa, if not the world.

“It's hard not to despair about Congo,” he said.

“Widespread instability.” “Recurrent waves of fighting.” “160 women raped per week.” “Drunken or drugged state of combatants.”

These were the words of the usually dry situation reports that United Nations officials were poring over on Friday, before they had even stepped off the plane to begin a high-level assessment of the region.

“I've never seen people in a worse state than the people of D.R.C.,” Mr. Holmes said.

Eastern Congo is stuck in a rut of violence, and the United Nations is concerned that donors and Western governments are getting tired of the steady stream of bad news that spews out of this vast nation. Rebel groups continue to kill, rape and destabilize. The Congolese Army is still weak and often predatory. The national economy, which should be blossoming because of Congo's bounty of minerals, is still on its knees.

On top of that, the Congolese government has recently begun agitating for the United Nations' 20,000 peacekeepers in Congo to leave, mostly because of domestic political calculations. To many United Nations officials, aid workers and Congolese, a hasty pullout would be a recipe for an even greater disaster.

“The situation could deteriorate further, that's what we fear,” Mr. Holmes said.

On Friday, it was clear even from a quick helicopter visit to this village nestled in a bowl of sweeping, green mountains, how desperate many people remain.

Hundreds of families were lined up on a soccer field, baking in the heat, many of them wearing rags. Some had placed empty bowls on their heads, waiting for handouts of food because they had been driven from their land.

“The Hutus are still in the forest,” said one woman, referring to a rebel group that was originally from neighboring Rwanda. “We can't go to our farms; it's dangerous for women.”

When asked if she knew anyone who had been raped, she simply paused.

“Me,” she said. “Three men. About a year ago.”

United Nations officials call eastern Congo the rape capital of the world, and sexual violence seems to have become embedded in the culture. A recent study showed that it was not just the myriad armed groups haunting the hills who were preying upon women. The number of rapes by civilians has increased 17-fold in recent years.

“Sexual violence is as bad as ever,” Mr. Holmes said.

Another issue that is getting worse is aid groups' access to people in need. Because of the recent fragmentation of some rebel groups and an uptick in military operations, rebels are attacking aid workers more frequently, possibly for money, hampering the delivery of food, medicine and other critical supplies.

In 2008, there were 108 security episodes involving humanitarian workers in the eastern Kivu provinces, the United Nations said. In 2009, that number shot up to 179. This year is on track to surpass that, and rebels recently kidnapped eight employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross, considered one of the most neutral aid organizations. After extensive negotiations that took about a week, the employees were released, a bit worn out but unharmed.