North Kivu Desperate for Respite

Abused by rebel militias and national army forces, thousands in eastern Congo have fled their homes for the squalor of refugee camps or the dangers of the region’s dense jungles.



Here, these refugees cling to life, afraid to return to the killing fields they once called home, some so scared they resort to eating grass to survive.



The Rutshuru and Masisi regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province are the hardest hit. Thousands of women have been raped and beaten and aid organisations say young men are being forced to pick up weapons to bolster the rebel ranks.



A man who would only call himself Ignace, recently wandered around the Kingi region of North Kivu, claiming he had fled the fighting between the feared militia of Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda and the faltering government army.



Nkunda leads a militia of several thousand soldiers who claim they are protecting Tutsi Congolese from their ethnic Hutu enemies, some of whom participated in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.



Nkunda’s soldiers - who, along with the Hutu and others militias, have been battling government forces and each other - prey on civilians across the region for food, supplies and sex.



“I met [government soldiers] on the road,” claimed Ignace. “They asked me to give them my goats, saying that they had nothing to eat. I told them that [the goats] were all I had to keep my family alive, but they threatened to kill me. They then took 14 goats.”



Ignace’s story typifies the dangers most people face daily.



Another 18-year-old man, who wished to remain anonymous, said his family was burned alive in their home when he was tending to his family’s goat herd.



“On my return home, I met people who were fleeing. A neighbour told me that my family had been killed by men in military uniforms,” he said.



Thinking he was the only survivor and fearing for his life, he fled.



“I hid all night with our goats and the next morning, I went to verify the information,” said the man. “My whole family was dead.”



In the Rutshuru region, thousands are living in the local football stadium or in schools and camps for displaced people. But even that isn’t safe.



Last November, camps for internally displaced refugees near Goma were looted after residents fled fresh fighting between rebels and the government. Those who tried to return home to tend their fields or find something to eat told IWPR that they were attacked by Nkunda’s troops.



One man said he made it back to his village only to be stopped by five rebels at a roadblock. “I ran and they threw a stone at my head,” he said. He was later hospitalised.



Another man, who would only identify himself as Felix, said he was beaten by Nkunda’s soldiers when he refused to carry their baggage.



Felix said he was treated by Médecins Sans Frontières in the town of Minova, some 50 kilometres from the provincial capital Goma.



“I told them that I was sick, but they did not believe me,” Felix said of the rebels. “They beat me. When I tried to escape from my tormentors, one of them cut me. I bled a lot and it is by the grace of God that I came here to Minova where I was treated at the health centre.”



The army is also accused of widespread abuses. One man, who asked to remain anonymous, told IWPR that he was tortured by members of the government’s security service, T2, after he was arrested while drinking alcohol.



“I was undressed, wet, beaten, and my back was ‘ironed’ by an electric iron," said the man. Ironing is a method of torture in which a hot iron is applied to a person’s skin.



Such stories illustrate the daily horrors faced by residents of eastern Congo, a vast swathe of land virtually beyond the control of the Congolese government and military based in Kinshasa, thousands of kilometres away.



Despite the suffering, some relief appears to be on the horizon with this week’s peace deal agreed between the government and the miasma of rival militias.



According to the terms of the agreement, supervised by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, the militias will be integrated into the Congolese army or disperse.



Similar arrangements in the past have failed in short order because of high levels of distrust based on ethnic hatred.



The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, meanwhile, reported that more than 230,000 people have fled their homes in North Kivu, bringing the number of internally displaced in the province to 800,000.



Some suggest the real figure is higher. Regardless, it is the largest number of internal refugees in the Congo since the end of the country’s chaotic and bloody civil war that ended in 2003.



John Holmes, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said the situation was “overwhelming” and criticised armed groups who targeted civilians.



Human rights workers in Goma have also been threatened.



One representatives of the NGO the Research Centre for the Environment and the Protection of Human Rights, CREDDHO, said he was afraid to go home after he denounced abuse of civilians by the Congolese military.



“A few days after that, the phone threats and threats against my person began,” said the man, who refused to give his name.



Representatives of both the army and the rebels have consistently denied that their soldiers are responsible for abuses.



Whether the peace agreement at last brings relief to the region’s tortured residents remains to be seen.



Charles Ntiryica is an IWPR journalist in Goma.