It's The Costliest War You Never Heard Of

That's what BlackPressInternational.com calls the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We covered it in last week's Africa Update, and we'll have more tomorrow.

Here's more from the report:

As many as five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A quarter million have perished in Darfur, western Sudan. Both are abominations, but only Darfur rates coverage in American media and subsequent concern by the public action. Genocide has been occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been occurring for years, and it's time concerned people asked "why has out attention been directed elsewhere?"

The DRC war is the widest interstate war in modern African history, yet western media has ignored the brutal conflicts to decry regime-change targets in Sudan and Zimbabwe. Formerly called Zaire, the DRC is the third largest country in Africa. Located in Central Africa, the Congo's eastern area hosts the world's deadliest conflict since World War II.

Quiet as kept, the DRC conflicts involve numerous foreign players, some within the immediate region, and some from Western and Asian capitals. Yet, it is unheard of among most Americans that rely on establishment-oriented forces to shape their perspectives. The DRC conflicts illustrate how the mainstream media skews information it presents us on Africa are skewed. Our perspectives on who is who and what is what among Africa are based on selective agendas of media, governments, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and lobby groups. One or two of scores of ongoing conflicts throughout the world are 'chosen' to be the subject of intense scrutiny and selective indignation -- very rarely on the basis of scale or the level of humanitarian emergency.

Read the rest. Five million people dead in the Congo, according to the report. What do you think it will take for stories of this magnitude coming from the continent to register on Western media's radar?

Geoffrey Bennett

Tags: Congo | Democratic Republic of Congo

1:00 PM ET | 11-17-2008 | permalink

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