Congo death toll rises to 3.3m

About 3.3 million people have died in Congo since civil war broke out four years ago in Africa’s third-largest nation, most from war-induced malnutrition and disease, the International Rescue Committee said today.

The relief organisation, founded in 1933 to aid people fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany, said the conflict in Congo had taken more lives than any other since the Second World War and was the deadliest recorded in African history.

The conflict, which began in August 1998 and at one point drew in armies from six other African nations, has worsened ethnic rivalries and tensions over land and territory in eastern Congo.