Lawlessness, displacement and a breakdown of healthcare plague the southeast of the Republic of Congo despite the fact that the tiny central African country's civil conflict officially ended several years ago.

The southern Pool region, devastated by a decade of bombardment by the national army during its war with local "Ninja" rebels, lacks basic infrastructure including roads and health centres. Continuing banditry and violence have forced even the most tenacious international agencies to make temporary pull-outs.

The United Nations calls the health situation in Pool "catastrophic".

The rebels and the government are at stalemate because they have not agreed either a political solution or a rehabilitation package for ex-rebels. Without a resolution, experts say Pool's dire situation will continue.

Total population	4.1 million (U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2006)
Internally displaced people (2006)	7,800 (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre)
Refugees originating in Congo (2005)	24,413 (UNHCR)