What Obama Can Do in Congo

Now that President Obama has made his visit to Ghana, which represents stable, democratic Africa, attention also must be paid to the rest of the story: the countries gripped in misery, suffering from the results of foreign misuse and national bungling.

While Ghana, having transformed into a democracy after decades of turmoil, symbolizes the hope springing up in quite a few countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo in the heart of the continent is the perfect example of that other Africa.

The eastern region of Congo has been beset by civil wars for a decade, a horrifying symptom of breakdown through the entire government. About 5 million people have died from the violence and its side effects of malnutrition and disease, while more than 1 million have been made refugees.

The undisciplined Congolese army and the various militias combating it use rape as a weapon of war. As many as 200,000 women and girls have been violated, some mutilated to the point of death, in what is described as the world's worst episode of sexual violence.

As perturbing as this brutality is the world's failure to make Congo a priority. But as a longtime observer of central Africa, I am not surprised. Historically, Congo has been overlooked except by those seeking to exploit it, epitomized in recent times by the United States.

When Congo emerged from the vicious colonial rule of Belgium, the United States empowered and, as a Cold War tactic, supported Mobutu Sese Seko. Utilizing the dictator was considered a legitimate tool by American policymakers who did not worry about the long-term consequences. Mobutu fathered the corrupt and dysfunctional mode of governing that now plagues the country.

Obama, who took an interest in Congo when he was in the Senate, has inherited the moral responsibility to make amends and help the Congolese build a government that actually works on their behalf.