THE Democratic Republic of the Congo team were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) at the semi-final stage on Wednesday but achieved a much more important aim in the process.

Ahead of kick-off at their game against hosts Ivory Coast, DR Congo players made a powerful gesture during the playing of their national anthem.

As the anthems are played, the camera will pan across the line of players on the field, so they knew this would be a good, highly visible moment to get a message across.

For the opening sections of the national anthem, the DR Congo players made two points with one simple gesture.

The first was made by aiming two fingers at their heads to represent a gun. This strong, shocking symbolism looked to raise awareness of the huge loss of life in the DR Congo in recent years and decades.

The conflicts in the eastern part of the country are the deadliest since World War II, with death tolls exceeding six million across two Congo wars and ongoing conflicts, including the Kivu conflict.

The First Congo War was incited by numerous unresolved issues on DR Congo’s eastern border with Rwanda, some still left over from the Congo Crisis of the 1960s and the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

That war lasted around a year, from 1996 to 1997 with Rwanda and DR Congo (then Zaire) both suffering casualties.

As the Morning Star’s international editor Roger McKenzie wrote when referring to this conflict in the paper in December: “Amid such slaughter, it is difficult to really say who won. It certainly was not the barely able-to-survive peasants or working classes in either country.”

The Second Congo War started a year later, in 1998, and is supposed to have ended in 2003.

But though these conflicts are given names and official timeframes with start and end dates, very little has been resolved and the killing of civilians continues.

The Kivu conflict is a blanket term that could be seen as a continuation of the Second Congo War, or indeed the First.

The deadly nature of these conflicts is what the players were using their platform to raise awareness of.

As semi-finalists at an Afcon, playing against the host nation in front of millions of viewers around the world, they were successful.

One video of the protest posted on social media had 6.4 million views at the time of writing, while other posts and coverage will have reached millions more.

This is all linked to the second point made by their gesture, covering their mouths with their other hand to protest about the lack of media coverage and support for the civilians suffering in these conflicts.

Despite it being the deadliest conflict since World War II, there is relative silence on the atrocities.

DR Congo’s French coach Sebastien Desabre also made the gesture in solidarity with his players. It was an important show of support, and one backed up by his words after the game.

“It was a message to show support to the victims, to notify people of the things that are happening in the east and that it is necessary to shed light on it,” said Desabre.

“A national football team is a driving force for a nation, and this evening it was also our duty to be able to inform what is happening behind the scenes.”

Over seven million people have been displaced in DR Congo as a result of the conflicts, which have also led to a large-scale humanitarian crisis.

The city of Goma and its surrounding area on the banks of Lake Kiwu and the border with Rwanda is one of the worst affected regions and was referenced by DR Congo captain Chancel Mbemba ahead of the protest.

“My thoughts are with all the victims of the atrocities committed in Goma and their families,” Mbemba said on Monday. “I pray with all my heart that my country finds peace.”

His teammate Cedric Bakambu also wrote on social media: “Everyone sees the massacres in eastern Congo, but everyone is silent.

“Put the same energy you use when talking about the Africa Cup of Nations into highlighting what is happening with us.”

DR Congo lost 1-0 to Ivory Coast in their semi-final match, but what happened before kick-off was much more important than what happened after it.

The players achieved their aim of using their platform to raise awareness of the ongoing atrocities in their country.

They will hope solidarity and support continue beyond this high-profile tournament and that there is a greater push for peace as a result.