STUDY DISPUTES DRC DEATH TOLL
Jan 21st, 2010 by admin
The estimated 5.4 million death toll as a result of the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo may be exaggerated, according to researchers. A new study published by the Human Security Report Project, based at the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, suggests that the widely accepted figure was methodologically flawed and might include many deaths that were not caused by war. The conflict-related death toll was originally calculated by the aid agency International Rescue Committee (IRC) for the period between 1998 and 2007. The new study challenges the IRC’s calculations, concluding that the actual number of casualties might be as low as half of the original 5.4 million figure.
