WASHINGTON—Hollywood celebrity Ben Affleck made his way to Capitol Hill Tuesday to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The Congo risks heading to another deeper spiral of violence,” said Affleck. “I strongly believe that if we continue to put Congo on the backburner of U.S. policy, it will come back to haunt us.”
Affleck, joined by Cindy McCain, the wife of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., appeared before the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights. Both recently visited the central African nation of more than 70-million people.
Five years of civil war and the accompanying disease and famine may have claimed an estimated three million lives, according to independent observers. Last week a special United Nations panel set up to investigate the crisis called for developed nations to underwrite a fund for thousands of women raped during the fighting. One of the panel members called the DRC the “rape capital of the world.”
Affleck spoke alongside officials from the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development.
“The potential of the Congo—including its natural resources, its water, and above all its people, both women and men—is extraordinary. This potential will remain unrealized though, without sustain progress on several fronts,” said Donald Yamamoto, principal deputy assistant secretary at the State Department. “We are focusing on specific areas where our assistance can make a difference in the short term as well as the long term.”
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the subcommittee thanked Affleck for using his celebrity to bring attention to the DRC at this “critical juncture in its history.”
“[Affleck] is to be highly commended for contributing his time, finances and fame to bring the world’s attention to the needs of a people who have suffered too much for too long,” said Smith. “For his presence, perspective and example, the subcommittee is most appreciative.”
In the past year, Affleck has emerged as an adamant advocate for the people of the DRC. In March 2010, he founded the Eastern Congo Initiative, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping the Congo become a place “with abundant opportunities for economic and social development, where a robust civil society can flourish.”
