The world should not ignore the horrors of eastern Congo

is the scene of the world’s most neglected major war. Some 5.5m Congolese have been forced from their homes, a number second only to Syria. Violence in the east of this vast central African country is intensifying, . Despite the imposition of martial law, the deployment of soldiers to run the two bloodiest provinces and the central government’s confident boast that things are getting better, they are not. Even those who have not fled their homes fear the arrival of armed men who rob, rape and murder with impunity.For decades the mayhem in eastern Congo has destabilised the region. The country imploded between 1998 and 2003, and troops from eight other countries barged in to fight over its mineral wealth. Perhaps 1m-5m people died in that war, mostly of conflict-induced starvation or disease. Today, the neighbours still meddle, and Congo’s lawlessness holds back all of the East African Community (), a bloc of about 300m people.