Why I am so touched with the recent violence in DRC (Congo)? I worked in East Congo, in Goma to be precise, early 1995 right after the Rwanda genocide. I wrote the short story “Goma, The Scent of Africa” in The Road’s eBook about my experiences there.
Later on, I worked in the regional office in Kampala, Uganda and was actively involved in the relief operations in East Congo after the -then- rebels headed by Kabila, headed from Uvira northwards, pushing all the refugees out of the camps and dispersing them into the jungle. That was 1996-1997.
The picture above is from that time, in Kisangani. But it could have been taken yesterday. The violence is the same. The human suffering is the same.
That is why I care about Congo.
Update: (10 minutes after I posted the above)
This press article just came in: Aid convoy finds east Congo refugee camps empty. This is exactly what happened in 1996-’97. I am so pissed off. Once again, the international community saw this coming, and stood by. Watching.
Peter. Flemish, European, aid worker, expeditioner, sailor, traveller, husband, father, friend, nutcase. Not necessarily in that order. (
Thank you for what you do! I would like to be an international aids worker, but I am still trying to figure out how to go about that.
Bomy H, United States