Congo sorrow

Africa: Revived fighting leaves many more displaced people to suffer from disease and starvation | Emily Belz

Sherrlyn Borkgren/ShootQ/Genesis Photos

The big picture from the Democratic Republic of Congo since August is gruesome: mass rapes, children forced to become soldiers, 250,000 people displaced, 500,000 in desperate need of food, water, or shelter, according to World Relief, with numbers changing daily. Photojournalists like Sherrlyn Borkgren capture the individual misery of a 16-year-old named Beda: "I have no father," wept Beda minutes after her father died from a gunshot wound in the kidney. He was hit by a stray bullet Nov. 9 as he walked down the street.

The largest UN peacekeeping force in the world —17,000 strong, with 3,000 more possibly to join them—patrols this East African country, but a struggle over Congo's vast mineral resources contributes to the absence of peace.