The "hole in Africa's heart"

DR Congo's atrocious secret

" ... The Congo is a vast territory, the size of western Europe. The war is not about any principle at all, violence has just moved in where there is no authority But it has been called the hole in the heart of Africa, because much of it is a giant power vacuum.

In the north-east, at least seven warlords are locked in brutal scramble for personal power and control. Lots of the fighters are children.
Rape is more widespread than possibly anywhere else on Earth.
And the war is not about any principle at all, violence has just moved in where there is no authority.

... We visited a refugee camp set in a small valley, a piece of land like a basin. Around its rims the United Nations patrolled to keep the militia out. It reminded me of the atrocities in Bosnia, where at a certain point individuals turned into human devils In an afternoon every person we spoke to, without exception, had witnessed not just killing but horrific mutilation. The children had sunken, troubled eyes. The women looked exhausted and the men were bursting with what they had to tell. Their relatives had their hearts ripped out, their heads cut off, their sexual organs removed. This, it seemed, was the standard way of killing here.
Why?
You want to know why?
Yes there is war, but this is different.
This is not just killing, or taking territory. It is deliberate mutilation on a scale that makes you reel with horror. ..... "