The day that the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo voted, on 30 July 2006, marked the most significant election held in Africa since 1994 balloting in South Africa at the end of that nation's apartheid regime. Like South African's, Congolese voted in their millions, walking up to 50 kilometres each way to the polling stations. The election brought to a close 130 years of foreign invasions, colonialism, exploitation of vast mineral wealth, dictatorship and the consequences of two recent wars that cost 4.3 million lives in just over five years, the most deadly conflict since World War II. Few in the rest of the world were aware of these conditions. The western media largely ignored this region, while the international community and the African continent seemed helpless to stop the destruction. Civilians, especially women and children, made up the majority of victims. The World Council of Church's general secretary, Samuel Kobia of Kenya, sent a hard-hitting pastoral message to the 65 million people of Africa's third largest country on the eve of these first elections held in more than 40 years. Kobia promised to accompany them as they move toward a difficult and unknown future. He also dispatched the author of this report to help break the silence surrounding the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Africa's Broken Heart" is the story of a people who must no longer be ignored. This is a passionate and painful book, yet it is laced with narratives of hope and heroism.