POVERTY: 50 years after independence, Congo mired in poverty

Aug 14, 2010
BRAZZAVILLE — As Congo-Brazzaville marks a half century of independence this weekend, the people of the oil-rich west central African state remain mired in poverty despite the end of a civil war and signs of growth.
Some 70 percent of the 3.6 million population live below the poverty line even after seven years of peace and recent double digit economic expansion.
"The tally for 50 years of independence is largely negative," says an opposition party leader, Mathias Dzon.
"Fifty years of independence are marked by failure. They are splattered with blood."
Until 1992 Congo was under one party rule, but the advent of multi-party politics also saw the rise of armed militias who plunged the country into a spiral of civil war.
The first conflict was in 1993-1994 followed by two other outbreaks of combat in 1997 and in 1998-2003, a reign of terror that left 15,000 people dead.
Peace finally came in 2003 when the government of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and the National Council of the Resistance led by Frederic Bintsamou, known as Father Ntumi, jointly made commitments to end a decade of civil war.
As the country readies to celebrate on Sunday the anniversary of its independence from France in 1960, Sassou Nguesso stresses that continued peace will enable Congo to address its widespread poverty.
"Over the past 50 years, the weakest link in our collective actions has been not achieving in our economic and social programmes a little of the kind of success we have had in the political area," he says.
"We all know there is no real independence without emancipation, without social and economic freedom," says the veteran head of state who was re-elected to a new seven-year term in 2009.
"Our country will not be totally independent until our people are free of the yoke of poverty."
Sassou Nguesso is one of Africa's longest-serving leaders with his first stint as president stretching from 1979 to 1992 and his return since 1997.
"We still have not achieved economic development despite our good will and efforts," he admits.
Congo is considered the fourth or fifth biggest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. With economic growth of 12 percent this year, Congo ranks at the top of the countries in the Economic Community of Central African States (CEMAC).
Once seen by international financial institutions as one of the world's most indebted countries, Congo is now benefitting from the programme of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.
Human rights groups however point to the long strides Congo must make to improve the lives of its citizens.
"Despite the major economic potential of the country, the Congolese still do not have access to quality health care," says Christian Mounzeo of the peace and rights group Rencontre pour la paix et les droits de l'homme (RPDH).
Since 2008 Congo has distributed anti-malarial drugs free to children up to 15 years of age, and to pregnant mothers, and Sassou Nguesso told parliament Friday that all caesarean births and pregnancy-related surgery would also be free of charge.
But Another group, the Justice and Peace Commission (CJP), cites as examples of deprivation that Congo provides drinkable water to only about 40 percent of the country and that 41 percent of the population are under-nourished.
Roger Bouka Owoko of the Congolese Observatory of Human Rights says paradoxically the oil boom of the past 20 years has also seen an increase in poverty.
"In reality, during 50 years of independence, all the political plans talked about or initiated out of concern for eradicating poverty have failed," he says.
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