Ecocide in the Congo

War and environmental degradation share a long history.

The Romans blighted the fields of Carthage with salt back in 146 BC. The flattened villages of Flanders...Agent Orange stripping the jungles of Vietnam...the burning oil wells in Iraq. These are just a few illustrations of the long term environmental ruin left after battle. There’s a term for it, in fact: ecocide, literally meaning the killing of the environment.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 12 years of conflict have cost more than five million human lives. One million people have been displaced, many living in over-crowded camps with little food and little hope. More tragic still, the enduring toll on the environment will likely affect citizens for generations to come. Washington Post reporter Delphine Schrank spent a year in the DRC as an International Reporting Project fellow. She witnessed the bloodshed and the ecocide and joined us on the line from New York with more.

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(Photo by *Simian* via Flickr/Creative Commons)