The Road to Nowhere - Dominic Nahr

© Dominic Nahr

It is estimated that the mineral reserves that lie in the subsoil of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have a value in excess of 24 trillion USD. This is a sum greater than the combined GDP of both the United States and the 27 European Union (EU) countries. This is also an estimate that does not include the vast timber reserves of the Congo River Basin, which is the second largest rainforest after the Amazon; nor does it include the vast potential for fresh water supply or for hydroelectric to harness the power of its vast rivers. Its unique biodiversity of flora and fauna presents pharmaceutical companies with a plethora of ingredients for use in pharmaceutical base products. Congo’s fertile landscape also gives it great potential to become the breadbasket of central Africa.

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However, while its ‘abundant natural wealth makes it potentially one the richest nations on earth, its gross domestic product per head is among the lowest in the world’. In fact, if you divide the World Bank’s GDP (purchasing power parity - PPP) data for DR Congo by the World Bank’s population estimate (64, 205000) you get a figure of 328 PPP USD, which ranks it last in the world. Most Congolese have slid further into poverty and in 2000 is was estimated that ‘per capita income was 25 percent of 1970 levels’. In North Kivu, a region along the Ugandan and Rwandan border and one of the most violent regions of the civil war, the average income per day is just 0.16 USD.

Civil war has plagued the DRC for over a decade. The situation in DR Congo has lead it to be termed the African World War, The Great African War and the Scramble for Africa. Foreign state involvement and their strategic economic interest in Congo bears striking similarities to European colonial powers scramble to carve up the continent in the late nineteenth century. It is a conflict that has involved six African nations and more than a dozen rebel groups. Estimates of the number of mortalities from the beginning of the second conflict in 1998 range from 3.9 million to 5.4 million (International Rescue Committee, 2008). Most of these deaths are either a direct or indirect consequence of hostilities. In the latest estimate, it is thought that around ‘727,000 people died in excess of normal mortality’ rates (International Rescue Committee). It is further estimated that around 45,000 people continue to die every month, remaining at a pace comparable to the hostilities of 1998-2004. DR Congo’s mortality rate is 60% higher than sub-Saharan Africa’s average. Causes of death that can be indirectly attributed to the war include poverty; malnutrition and severe food insecurity and disease. In fact, DR Congo has the lowest healthcare expenditure of any country in the world, with an average of just $15 per person per year (International Rescue Committee).

The World Food Programme find the food security situation in DR Congo ‘extremely alarming’ and the International Food Policy Research Institute rank it last in the world on the Global Hunger Index (GHI). In 1990, the GHI rating for DR Congo was 25.5; two of its neighbours, Congo-Brazzaville and Uganda were rated at 21.0 and 18.7 respectively where a higher index score represents worse performance. In 2009, DR Congo was rated at 39.1 and Congo-Brazzaville and Uganda were rated 15.4 and 14.8 respectively.

Conflict has made the food security situation worse. Civil war in DR Congo has made it the deadliest war since the Second World War.

Dominic Nahr won the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award in 2009 for The Road to Nowhere