CONGO CRISIS - LATEST UPDATE

“Today a General from the Congolese army visited Beni, Butembo and Lubero. He has promised to fully investigate incidents of looting by the Army. Unfortunately his presence in the town with heavily armed body guards created a lot of panic and commotion. Communities living on the outskirts of the city were very afraid and most hurriedly fled into the nearby forests and hills.

On the frontline, we hear that General Nkunda's army have surrounded the town of Kanyabayonga. The town is empty of people; we hear that almost everyone has fled to the neighbouring villages on the main road to Lubero.

In Kiwanja, people have vacated the temporary UN camps and returned to their villages. This is partly due to the return of relative calmness and the horrid conditions that they were enduring in the camp without food or shelter for a week and also the outbreak of Cholera.

On the national level, Assembly members (MPs) are calling on the government to open direct dialogue with the rebellion, but the government and the presidency has not responded.

We managed to mobilise the UN to help people who wanted to flee from the frontline. This has been successful and now 2800 families have fled to relative safety. We have spent the whole day helping the displaced and working with churches and local business to organise a huge fundraiser on Sunday. We have asked business people (timber merchants, telecoms, beer distributors etc) to commit to a contribution of at least $100. We have had good response so far, people are really pulling together.

This evening we will be visiting a new group of displaced families who have camped at an abandoned coffee warehouse in the outskirts of Beni.

The most worrying development at the moment is the mobilisation of the Mai Mai. We have information that the business community in 5 towns have raised funds to buy weapons and logistical support for the Mai Mai so that they can protect their towns from the advancing rebel army. This is a nightmare scenario! The Mai Mai are brutal and don’t have a command or discipline structure. They have committed atrocities in the past and once mobilised it is difficult to get the guns off them! Also they are not uniformed and when the rebels attack the town they shoot at civilians claiming they are Mai Mai. I have been in touch with the UN to help stop this mobilisation and offer support to the besieged towns so that they don’t have to resort to this desperate strategy.

On a positive note, due to the the loud noise we made about the killing of our peace partner in Kiwaja, the UN has established a commission of inquiry to bring to the murderers to the book. Hopefully justice will be served one day.

We have called for a civil society meeting on Saturday so that we can better coordinate our response to this dangerous situation facing our region again."