Rebels

When it was first suggested that we might come to the DRC we were, naturally enough, concerned about whether or not it was safe. We were told, by people living and working here, that parts of the country were not OK but that Aru, where we are, is perfectly safe. That has proved to be the case, there is no hint of any difficulties, unrest or anything like that here at all. Because it is known that Aru is safe, the town is growing, people know it is a stable place and are building homes here. This brings its own problems – there is currently enough clean (“clean water still needs filtering for westerners) water from local wells but how long will it last? But instability is not an issue – we feel, and are, completely safe.

Before we came we knew that there were problems further south, particularly around Goma, a long way away. We also knew that, with such problems the country generally is less stable. Since getting here we have heard of just what such ‘instability’ means in practice. To the north of us, around a town called Kumuru (no idea if that is how it is spelt!), there is, apparently,“rebel activity”. In the news you may hear about “rebel activity”, or areas being under “rebel control” but we would have no idea what that might mean. Over the last few weeks we have been hearing some of the reality of what these things mean in practice.

Initially, a few weeks ago, we were at a meeting reviewing progress on various initiatives across the very large diocese of Aru. One item was education and we heard that the schools around Kumuru were empty because the families had fled the area, leaving their homes and their land (which, given that many are peasant farmers, is a very difficult thing to do!).

The other week, the BDD Coordinator [see previous blog], who Peter works with, went with two others to try to review progress on the ENP work in the area (you may, or may not recall, that ENP is a community initiative, to enable communities to move out of poverty). The three people from the BDD travelled, on their small motorbikes, to Kumuru – something of an achievement on Congolese roads! They found that the rebels had complete control of the area where they were, there was no sign of the Congolese police or army. They were told rebels would, when they wanted, simply demand money, or food, or animals etc. The rebels seemed well equipped with new weapons and uniforms. Not surprisingly, the community work was struggling!

Peter attended a meeting last weekend to discuss the situation in Kumuru. He found out that the problem began last October, when a group of rebels, of about 300 people, took control of an area. This group was made up of some people from South Sudan, Uganda as well as Congolese. The result was that, in October:

· some people had been killed (approx. 40)

· some people had been raped (10 known instances, probably many more)

· 15 houses had been burnt down and destroyed

· 5,000 people had been displaced

· 3,000 people had become refugees

· Approx. £10,000 had been taken (not a lot in our terms, but a lot here – worth 40 lives??)

The rebels were, apparently, unhappy with what they see as ongoing government corruption and have set up their own identity card system. Locals have to pay for these identity cards, if they don’t, they may be shot, raped or subject to some other form of assault.

That seems to be the reality of “rebel activity”. It feels very real when the people you work with are visiting the area. It also feels very real when you realise that the person who was our night watchman during our first month has gone up to that area to look after his daughter whilst she recuperates. It feels very real when many of the people living and working here come from that area.

As we said at the beginning, there is no threat to our safety here. If there were, we would leave, but we wanted to share some of the reality of some people’s lives nearby.

Sorry if it is a bit heavy!

As we write this, people from the weekend meeting, including the person Peter works with, are planning to try to have talks with the rebels to try to find a peaceful way forward. If you pray, there would be no harm in praying for the success of these talks!

Apologies that there are no photos this week – we have no photos of rebel activity (you’ll be pleased to know!).