Violent conflict in eastern Congo has killed thousands more people in the past three months and made more than 250,000 homeless. With disease rampant and hunger spreading, this is a humanitarian disaster comparable to that in Sudan'srnDarfur region or in Somalia. Europe and America have condemned the slaughter but have stumbled over how to stop it. They now have reason to try a lot harder.rnA United Nations report published last week has stripped away some of the myths surrounding the fighting in Congo's eastern provinces of North and South Kivu and exposed its underlying causes. It shows how the war is largely a proxy fight between rival militias that are being armed and encouraged by Rwanda's government and by Congo's. The evidence set out includes photocopies of e-mails, letters and legal documents. Most damningly, the report lays bare the intimate links between the National Congress for the Defence of the People, known by its French abbreviation CNDP, a Congolese Tutsi militia led by General Laurent Nkunda (pictured left), and the Rwandan government led by another Tutsi, President Paul Kagame (pictured right). It says that "the Rwandan authorities have been complicit in the recruitment of soldiers, including children, have facilitated the supply of military equipment, and have sent officers and units from the Rwandan Defence Forces to [Congo] in support of CNDP."
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