Post #2

About half of the people in the Republic of Congo live below the poverty line.  There may be many causes for this poverty.
Some may blame the poverty on the low agricultural productivity.  Most of the country's people use old-fashioned, traditional means of farming.  They use improvised fertalizer, seeds, and planting materials.  These bad farming conditions end up in poor resluts when it comes time to harvest and results in bad profits for the farmers.

Another cause for the poverty may be the violence.  For over ten years, the country has been engulfed by violence.  A war in 1998-2002 resulted in extreme violence.  Many have lost lives despite a peace treaty, signed in December, 2002.     

http://www.theirc.org/where/congo
http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/web/guest/country/home/tags/congo

Poverty in the Republic of Congo

Like most African countries, the Republic of Congo is deeply in poverty.  The Republic of Congo is located in West Africa and is next to the Atlantic Ocean.  This country is plagued by widespread disease, violence, unemployment, and environmental issues.  These all result in poor living conditions, starvation, and death.  Since 1998, an estimated 5.4 million people have died because of conflict and humanitarion reasons.  The life expectancy rate is a low 54 years.  The Republic of Congo is a rich source of natural resources.  Thier economy is based on agriculture and oil production.  Some of thier valuable resources are petroleum, timber, uranium, zinc, copper, gold nd many more.  If this state of poverty continues, soon the violence level will increase and the world could loose an important source of natural resources.

http://www.theirc.org/where/congo