Congo Crisis Hits Children The Hardest

Food Aid Still Not Getting Through As Thousands Of Childrens' Lives Hang In The Balance At Packed Refugee Camps

(CBS/AP)  They wail and yell to show their distress: the youngest victims of eastern Congo's latest eruption of violence have no other way to say they're famished, sick and weary.

Thousands spent the night in the open, their mothers trying vainly to shield them from the chilly rain with cotton cloth or plastic sheets torn from sacks. Many are so weak and malnourished they have no protection against disease.

The U.N. humanitarian agency said Sunday that the violence has forced 250,000 people from their homes since rebels began their offensive in late August, swelling a refugee population that already stood at 1 million. More than 60 percent of the refugees are children, according to UNICEF.

Aid groups say that children are being disproportionately hit by a crisis that could expand into a full-blown humanitarian disaster if assistance is not widely distributed soon.

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Click here to learn more about the groups and the history behind the crisis in eastern Congo.

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"We're all so hungry. And today it doesn't look like we'll get any food again," said 13-year-old Louise Maombi, who was comforting her sick 3-year-old brother outside a free clinic in a camp nearly four north of the provincial capital of Goma. Twishime was sweating, running a high fever and crying that his body ached - typical signs of malaria.

Jaya Murthy, the spokesman in Goma for UNICEF, said emergency food, medication and tablets to chlorinate water had arrived from Rwanda on Saturday and would soon be distributed at the Kibati camp. With many aid workers having fled eastern Congo, the U.N. humanitarian agency said it would be Tuesday before food would arrive at Kibati, where the population has swelled from 15,000 to 50,000.

The first humanitarian convoy to go behind rebels lines since eastern Congo erupted in violence in August carried medical supplies Monday for clinics looted by retreating government troops, but no food.

The head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in eastern Congo said U.N. peacekeepers were escorting the convoy. Both the Congolese army and the rebel leader assured the convoy safe passage.

Even before the latest crisis, children at Kibati were reaching the "emergency threshold" where 10 percent are "skin and bones and the last stage before they perish," Murthy said.

"We know the children are famished," he said. "We don't normally feel the type of desperation" displayed this week at Kibati.

The situation in eastern Congo "could have catastrophic consequences for hundreds of thousands of children who are weak, hungry and vulnerable to killer diseases," he said. "If there is no immediate help many could die."

Nurse Justin Majuwa of the Los Angeles-based International Medical Corps said the worst problems at Kibati's clinic were malaria and acute diarrhea, diseases that can kill a weak baby in two or three days.

In the last couple of days, tens of thousands have headed north behind rebel lines, saying they had no choice but to get home because they could find no shelter or food.

On Saturday, a disconsolate woman wept on the roadside north of Kibati: She had fled the violence into neighboring Uganda and was making her way back through the forest when she lost her only son.

"What shall I do? What will become of me?" she wailed, tearing at the braids on her head. "I can't go home without him and I can't find him."

She was too distraught to give her name.

[fjinnw]

Keep making babies, theres no hope for these countries.

[mardeecalhoun]

My heart goes out to all who are having difficulty now. Children are always innocent victims of tragedy. I pray these people will know peace & full bellies. What happens to one happens to all. I pray that our governments & individuals will do more to end the suffering that is happening now. The only way that I know to help is to try to help end the suffering in any way I can in my little corner of the world & to be truly grateful for the blessings I have in my life. I thank God.

This story is sooo sad...i wish there was something i can do...i will keep all the people in Congo in my prayers.

[u-r-right]

u-r-right:

Birth control does not stop war, hunger, or genocide. Is that all you can come up with? Another stupid idiotic statement. Perhaps you should think before you write!


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Posted by nishaboston at 06:32 AM : Nov 03, 2008

Birth Control AND Education. Check.

[credibility2]

Third world nations desperately need meaningful education of all types and to finally abandon their destiny of desperation. They will never achieve anything of successful measure until they become enlightened. Education can be their beacon of hope.

[steveperzan]

When you give a feast, invite the
poor, because they are not able to
pay you back.God will repay you."
Luke14:13-14

There''s a scene in Frank Capra''s
movie Mr. Deeds Goes to Town in
which Gary Cooper explains his
concern for the poor. He says:
"There will always be leaders and
followers. It''s like the road out in
front of my house. It''s on a steep
hill. And every day I watch the cars
climbing up. Some go lickety-split
up that hill in high--some have to
shift into second--and some
sputter and shake and slip back to
the bottom again. And I say that
the fellas who can make the hill in
high should help those who can''t.
That''s all I''m trying to do with the
money I inherited. Help the fellas
who can''t make the hill in high."
I''m Barack Obama and I approve this message.

[nishaboston]

u-r-right:

Birth control does not stop war, hunger, or genocide. Is that all you can come up with? Another stupid idiotic statement. Perhaps you should think before you write!

[CMancos]

We have seen starvation on the continent of Africa for a very long time. We can build our armies, go into space and spend money on stupid stuff to prove the Big Bang Theory, but we cannot stop starvation, right? Here in America, Land of the Free, Home of the Spoiled, we toss ton of food in the trash on a daily basis. It is strange that the richest nation in the world is so wastful. We laugh at our senior citizens because they are so thrifty but the fact is that many of them know what a real depression is and they know how you have to scrounge to survive. The youth of America haven''t experienced that yet but they are going to soon. God Bless America for doing all she has for others for so many years but she is about tapped out now. It will be interesting to see who will help her, when the time comes. How many of you are...truly...civilized nations? One Nation Under God.

[whitemale08]

All a result of the evil fiat-currency Anglo-American Financial Empire.

Part of the British ''chaos theory'' where so-called Prince Phillip can accomplish his goal to reduce the earth''s population by 2/3rds.

The solution is to end ''globization'' and return to a Wesphalia nation-state world where every country acts in it''s own best interest and not for the supposed ''intrinsic'' value or worthless paper fiat-currency.

[u-r-right]

Birth control

[coupebibamba]

The UN is a terrible excuse for an organization. Bangladesh, Uruguay, India and South Africa contribute some of the most soldiers to the UN Peacekeeping force but the 5 nations with the most power in the UN are the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, and France. What the hell is that if you want to have power WHY CANT YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THE ARMY what a ridiculous hypocrisy to expect power and respect and not even contribute to the UN peacekeeping military that should be a requirement. That organization is so full of *** they should be ashamed to be alive.

[cbs_oliver]

Oil.