President Obama: Who Will Go to the Congo?

Thank you for your previous efforts to help the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As you begin your work as President, I urge you to make the crisis in the DRC a priority by ensuring the appointment of a senior level diplomat along with an adequately resourced team of professionals to work exclusively on the crisis in the Great Lakes region of Africa. Since August, a quarter of a million people have been displaced due to fighting, many more are in danger of displacement and death due to ongoing military actions.

The situation in eastern Congo is volatile. Due to ongoing fighting more than one million people are displaced from their homes living in camps or in communities relying on the kindness of others who have little to share. Current plans for disarming fighters with the help of the Rwandan army and others could result in hundreds of thousands more being displaced, reprisal killings, and the mass rape and looting that we have seen so many times in the past. Worse yet, the crisis has been going on for 10 years and many Congolese have been displaced and dispossessed numerous times. Over 5.4 million are dead as a result of the conflict.

The long term nature of the conflict, the involvement of other governments in the region, and various militias and rebel groups with differing agendas, makes the situation extremely complex and in need of a comprehensive solution that I think could be best achieved by someone assigned full time to the crisis.

[Your comments here]

I know that the suffering of Congolese has not gone unnoticed by your Administration. However, I know that in times of hardship such as we are in now it may be hard to look beyond our borders. And while I myself am feeling the effects of the current economic climate, I also recognize that the people of Congo are living with horrendous suffering and we can do something to help.

You have the power to make a difference in the crisis in the Congo. I hope I can count on you to appoint a Special Envoy to the Great Lakes region in Africa to bolster efforts at addressing the crisis in Congo and achieving a lasting peace that the Congolese so desperately need.