Tallying the dead to help save the living in eastern Congo

This Congolese woman told the International Rescue Committee she lost four brothers in the war; two were shot and two died after their throats were slit

More than 1.7 million deaths blamed on war

June 21, 2000
Web posted at: 4:40 a.m. EDT (0840 GMT)

(CNN) -- Counting people is never easy. Even in the best of circumstances, people move and don't leave forwarding addresses -- or they just refuse to cooperate with census takers.

The task is much more complicated though, if the census taker is trying to count dead people -- in a war zone. But that was the chore undertaken by Les Roberts, an engineering lecturer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and an epidemiologist experienced in counting people in conflict zones.

Roberts was hired by the International Rescue Committee, a U.S. aid group, to study the number of people who have died as a result of the 22-month-long civil war in eastern Congo.

Roberts and his survey teams talked to members of 1,011 households between April 18 and May 27, 2000. His report concludes that more than 1.7 million people have died in the central African country because of the war.

But only 200,000 died from war-related violence. Most of the rest died because of the "war-related collapse of the region's health infrastructure and delivery of health and nutrition services," according to the summary of Roberts' study.

"On average, some 2,600 people are dying every day in this war and our research found that the first months of 2000 were even worse than 1999," Roberts said.

Children Roberts met while in the Congolese war zones

Focusing on the mothers

Roberts interviewed people in three provinces to determine the impact of the fighting that began in August 1998 and has brought five foreign armies into the conflict. He said he focused on mothers because they usually have the most detailed knowledge of the health histories of their children.

He and his team members met with the mothers in their mud huts -- many with thatched roofs and no window coverings. He said he was surprised by their willingness to talk.

"Everyone was very happy to see us," Roberts said. "These people are so trusting and warm in a country where war is running amok."

He said only about seven families declined to be interviewed for the study. Usually, he said, neighbors showed up -- including children -- and offered to join the conversation.

"A big crowd would form around us and we would say why we're here and what we wanted to do and then we'd ask them just three questions: how many people are in your family, have any died since last Christmas, how many died last year."

In an interview recorded by Roberts for IRC, one woman, holding a small child on her hip, told the researchers she had left her village because of the war.

"It was really very dangerous," she said through an interpreter. The woman said she knew of five people who had died because of the war -- four of them her brothers.

"Two were shot dead and two had their throats slit," the woman said. The fifth person died of malaria while fleeing the war zone, she said.

Death tally far higher than normal for the region

Roberts' research determined that even without the war, about 600,000 people would have died in Congo in the two-year period. But he found that since the war started, more than 2.3 million have died.

The areas surveyed included: the city of Kisangani in Orientale Province, Katana and Kabare Health Zones in South Kivu Province, Kalonge Administrative Zone in South Kivu Province and approximately 1,000 square kilometers surrounding Moba in Katanga Province.

Roberts used data from global positioning satellites, or GPS, to pinpoint the locations of the villagers he interviewed.

From these surveys, Roberts and the IRC calculated that over 2,300,000 people died in the five provinces that comprise eastern Congo between August 1998 and May 2000.

Roberts attributed 200,000 deaths to the actual violence of war. The rest died from the war's side effects -- disease and starvation.

The body of another victim of the clashes in Congo is removed

Health care system has collapsed

"The health care system in just in a shambles," Roberts told CNN. "Lots of clinics either have no medicine or have been looted and physically destroyed."

He said many of the trained healthcare workers have fled because of the fighting. But even if they had stayed, Roberts said, many in the Congo could not afford the $1 it costs to go to a clinic because the country's economy has been ruined by the war.

"The loss of life in Congo has been staggering," said Reynold Levy, the president of the IRC.

"It's as if the entire population of Houston was wiped off the face of the earth in a matter of months."

The United Nations has brokered a cease-fire between Congolese President Laurent Kabila, the main rebel groups and both sides' allies in neighboring countries. However, fighting continues both between the rebels and government troops and between Rwandan and Ugandan troops, which support opposing rebel factions.

More than 20 million people live in the five provinces checked by IRC researchers. The group conducted five mortality surveys between April 18 and May 27 to help determine the best aid programs for the region and collect information about the war's impact.

IRC called for increased humanitarian assistance to the region, unfettered access for aid workers and an immediate cease-fire.

CNN Producer Karla Crosswhite and The Associated Press contributed to this report.