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Have You Heard About What’s Happening in Kasaï?
A deadly crisis is raging in DR Congo’s Kasaï region, yet few people have even heard about it.
What’s going on? Since August 2016, more than 1.4 million people have been displaced due to conflict between militia and government forces. Over 80 mass graves have been discovered. Families caught in the crossfire are suffering, with severe humanitarian needs.
During 2017, Medair sent two assessment teams to Kasaï to better understand the needs and how we should respond to them. To give you a sense of the size of this huge country, the flight to Kasaï from our base in Nord Kivu is more than 1,000 kilometres, a distance comparable to a flight from Geneva to Madrid. So if we’re in Switzerland, it’s like there’s a war going on in Spain.
In Kasaï, the Medair teams travelled to affected communities to assess the impact of the crisis.
“The poverty in this region is indescribable,” said Michael, Medair relief worker.
In one village, they found the health facility had been burned down and all its contents had been looted or lost in the fire. “The province has no means to respond, so the people here set up a simple mud-brick hut as a substitute, with a small table for the doctor and only a few medications available,” said Michael. “There is a room for births but without a bed or even a mattress on the floor. Mothers need to return home soon after giving birth, because there is simply no place for monitoring or care.”
In November 2017, Medair found that malnutrition rates were twice as high as the emergency threshold, among 522 children under five assessed.
Despite vast humanitarian needs, the response by NGOs like Medair has been hamstrung by a lack of funds, which is linked to a lack of media coverage. The challenge of presenting the Kasaï crisis in a way that captures the conscience of Western media remains unmet.
I don’t believe it’s for a lack of compassion. Charitable giving has risen year-on-year for 37 out of the last 40 years. In the “information age,” individuals are becoming increasingly selective about their giving, seeking out the most severe needs, and supporting the most efficient and credible organisations. Yet for the majority of individuals, selections are made from information presented in a clear, moving way, whether by mainstream media, on the internet, or through friends.