"The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been the most deadly since the second world war, a new study estimates, with nearly 4 million people having died as a result of the widespread violence and instability. (...) It is the worst humanitarian crisis in the past 60 years, says Richard Brennan, the IRC’s health director. “In terms of absolute numbers,” he says, “there’s nothing that comes close.”

Tragically, most of the deaths could easily have been prevented, the organisation says. “The reason people are dying in east Congo is not because they are being cut down by machetes,” says Brennan. Rather, pervasive violence and instability prevents farmers from tilling their fields, markets from getting food to the hungry, and clinics from providing basic healthcare and vaccines, he says."

Full story in the New Scientist