REMEMBER THE PEACE DEAL IN CONGO?: I linked to the peace deal report late last week. That report struck me as overly optimistic. Well, now there appear to be problems in implementing it.

StrategyPage ran a report over the weekend that saw this coming. We Maybe Might Have A Peace Deal. The StrategyPage report has useful background.

Here’s AFP on January 1.

Congo and sub-Saharan Africa tend to be well off the mainstream media radar. (Re: off mainstream radar. I’ll link to StrategyPage’s “Wars Update” later today.) Congo, however, was a slaughterhouse. The last Congo civil war killed between three and five million people. The death toll estimates include exposure (due to displacement) as well as combat and just plain mass murder. Displacement often leads to malnutrition which increases the risk of disease. That’s why the higher death toll estimates may be correct.