However, to date, the population of this vast and impoverished country continues to require a great deal of humanitarian assistance. Years of neglect have virtually wiped out health services in many areas of the country.
Poverty is so widespread that many people only just about scrape by.
At the beginning of 1997, MSF focused its assistance programme on the Rwandan refugees who were fleeing the advance of the Alliance troops. It is widely believed in the aid community that refugees were massacred in their thousands during the late spring and early summer. In Eastern Congo, MSF teams are also making massive efforts to support the existing health structures and rehabilitate many of those which have been destroyed by war and neglect. There is a great deal of instability in this part of the country and the teams need to be prepared to evacuate at a moments notice. These districts cover a population of between 100,000 to 150,000 and are organised around networks of accessible health facilities staffed by properly trained health personnel.