Focus on the Congo

As aid pours into Asia as part of tsunami relief efforts, Africans in the Congo lament that, once again, the forgotten continent's own humanitarian crises go essentially unheeded:

Even now, as thousands of children die each week from drinking dirty water and not having enough food, and the people of once-thriving communities hide like the hunted in the forests, the Congolese expect little from the world's big spenders.

But as Congo watches the global scramble to raise billions in aid for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami, many here wonder why Asian suffering stirs action while African suffering is greeted largely with apathy.

The New York-based International Rescue Committee says nearly 4 million people have been killed in Congo since the start of five-year war in 1998, most from war-induced disease and starvation. Fighting persists in the county's east -- the epicenter of the war -- and 1,000 are dying each day, half of them younger than 5.

The tsunami, in comparison, killed an estimated 150,000 as of Friday. The disaster was a sudden scourge of nature, while Congo's toll has accumulated slowly, at the hands of man.

1,000 deaths per day. Half of these younger than age 5. 4 million dead since 1998. Darfur is a similar story. We must remember to keep perspective.