What is the war about?

The origins of the war in Democratic Republic of Congo lie in the Rwandan genocide which killed 800,000 Rwandans in just 100 days in 1994.

As ethnic Tutsi forces regained control of Rwanda, the Interahamwe and other Hutu militias were pushed over the border into DR Congo, from where they continued large-scale bloody raids into Rwanda. This promoted Rwandan forces to violate Congo's borders, seeking to hunt down the Interahamwe, and to arm Congolese groups sympathetic to the Tutsis.

Rwanda's intervention was opposed by the (then-Zaire) government of President Mobutu. With active help from Rwanda, Uganda and Angola, Laurent Kabila's mainly Tutsi forces gradually gained control, and Kabila became President in 1997.

However, further fighting erupted when Kabila tried to free himself from the conspicuous Rwandan influence.

Tutsi militia in eastern Congo, the Banyamulenge, continued to be the focus of violence, and in 2001 Kabila was assassinated and succeeded by his son. After further fighting, a peace agreement and new Transitional Government was installed in 2003.

But this settlement did not suit everyone, and fighting in some regions continues, especially in the provinces of North and South Kivu and Ituri.

Although the primary conflict continues to centre around Hutu-Tutsi antipathy, other participants are groups who are simply unwilling to give up power to centralised government.

There are repeated upsurges of violence. Between August and December 2008, over 250,000 people were forced from their homes, and unknown numbers killed, as CNDP forces advanced to the outskirts of the city of Goma.

This is not an 'independence struggle'. Most ordinary citizens of eastern Congo are proud to be Congolese and want nothing but peace.

It is a war with large numbers of participating groups and shifting alliances. It is a war with no clear-cut front lines, and with no consistent strategic goals, other than to survive and seize more power.

It is a war which has devastated the environment and wildlife, and stolen natural resources.

Three groups in particular have suffered greatly. Thousands of children have been recruited as child soldiers. They are often made to commit senseless acts of violence, even against relatives, to ensure their loyalty to orders and to brutalise their senses.

Many thousands of women have been raped, often repeatedly and with appalling violence. The use of sexual violence as a weapon of war is probably worse in Congo than in any other conflict.

The forest-dwelling pygmies have been unwitting targets for many groups. In some cases this has been to clear them from areas seen as important to one faction or another. One group sends recruits to kill pygmies, simply because they are hard to find and to shoot, and therefore good practice!

How is the war kept going?

To fight for these many years, the different groups must have arms and ammunition, and money to buy them. Sometimes these are stolen from the national army, which in part is inefficient and corrupt.

A UN report details one raid on a military store in Katsiro in September 2008, where the stolen weapons included heavy mortars, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, rifles and ammunition.

In October 2008, at Rumangabo, CNDP captured two multiple rocket-launcher units, and in November 2008 at Rutshuru, twelve truck loads of ammunition. The UN believes that elements of the national army are cooperating with certain militias in the supply of weapons. This is not a war of traditional weapons or rifles. The participants have heavy modern armaments which can kill large numbers of people.

However, the UN also cites compelling evidence of the involvement of other nearby countries in supplying funds, facilities and weapons to the groups they favour.

The Times (7 April 2009) reports that the West's sense of guilt about the Rwandan genocide has caused us to overlook Rwanda's massive involvement in the war in Congo - a financial commitment by Rwanda which is unintentionally made possible by a large income of foreign aid - including from the UK.

A 2008 UN report also names a number of Congolese-born businessmen based in Europe, who are funding different factions from business activities within the EU.

Are we involved?

D.R. Congo should be a rich country, but instead is poor. It is huge - slightly bigger than the whole of Western Europe, and its population of 64 million (just a little more than the UK) has an average income of about £96 per year and a life expectancy of about 46 years.

The Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank, estimates that 1000 people die each day directly from the war, or from the poverty and disease it causes.

Congo has vast mineral resources, especially in the east. There is an abundance of gold and diamonds, and many industrial minerals. Very valuable ores of tin and tungsten are found, and coltan a primary source of the rare metals niobium and tantalum is much sought-after.

Tantalum is essential to the manufacture of capacitors, particularly for applications requiring high performance and compact size. It is used in hearing aids and pacemakers, mobile phones, satnav, ignition and anti-lock braking systems, video games consoles, laptop computers, video and digital cameras. It is likely that every reader of this magazine has one or more of these items, containing tantalum.

Whilst the major sources of these minerals are in other countries - Bolivia for the tin ore, Australia for tantalum - legal supplies from these countries are expensive on the world market.

Businesses which are looking to cut costs at whatever price to others are looking for cheaper supplies, which may only be available from unscrupulous dealers able to avoid taxes or safety and environmental costs.

The 2008 UN report cites clear evidence of companies in Belgium, Germany, France, the UK and the United Arab Emirates being involved in illegal trade in minerals from DR Congo. This is often handled through intermediaries in Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya or Uganda. The UN Expert Group has compiled an extensive dossier of written evidence of these activities.

In effect, these companies are paying militia groups for access and mining rights to resources in the area the militia controls. These payments represent a considerable income for the leaders of the militia, and so make a peace deal more unlikely, and also are used to buy arms which enable the fighting to continue.

At the same time, Congo's unique natural environment is damaged by an illegal charcoal industry, using endangered tropical hardwoods, from places including the Virunga National Park, and so threatening the environment of gorillas and other species.

Each of us, unknowingly and innocently, might be using everyday appliances containing components which are bringing death and destruction in Congo.

The war allows these abuses to thrive. The International Rescue Committee describes the war in DR Congo, as "the worst humanitarian disaster since World War Two." We call upon all WorldShare supporters to help to bring an end to this situation.