Congo: The Bleeding Heart of Africa

Just when you think it might be over and the people of Eastern Congo stop holding their breath tragedy strikes again. As CNN recently put it “history seems destined to repeat itself.” Another reporter from BBC said it “looks like heaven but it feels like hell.” I will attempt to fill you all in on the most recent chaos occurring in Congo.

First, the Prime Minister of Congo, Antoine Gizenga, resigned in September due to old age and failing health. Unlike most parliamentary systems, the prime minister is appointed by the president and holds no significant power. In the recent Congolese elections the top 3 presidential hopefuls were Kabila, Bemba, and Gizenga. When a run off election between the top 2 was announced Kabila offered Gizenga the position of Prime Minister in exchange for his party’s support. Many people were nervous that Kabila would select a replacement who was from his own party, but thankfully he selected the Budget Minister who is also from the PALU. Adolphe Muzito Seems like a good choice. He has received international praise for being strong with budget reforms, but regardless his position holds little power anyway.
Now to try to explain the conflict, I’ll do my best. First of all where is all of this taking place? The conflicts are only occurring in the Eastern provinces of Congo namely Sud Kivu and specifically the Goma area. When did it all start? A sort of loaded question because I could argue it started 1000 years ago, but for all practical purposes it began in 2003 after “peace” came to Congo and the Second Congo War had ended. This round of fighting began on August 28. In order to answer the other questions I will do my best to give you the information I know. General Laurent Nkunda is a former military leader for the Congolese Government Army who started his own rebel group in order to defend the rights of Congolese Tutsi people or as they are also known the Banyamulenge people. He claims Kabila fought along side Rwandan Hutu rebels (the one’s who performed the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsi people) and encouraged the killing of Congolese Tutsi. He claims he will not stop fighting until Congolese Tutsi are protected. The Congolese Tutsi people are a big problem because most people in Congo hate them saying they are not in fact Congolese but Rwandan and blame them for much of Congo’s violence. Rwanda also doesn’t seem happy to accept them back. It is a difficult fight because many of them did come to Congo after the genocide as uninvited refugees who never left, but historically the general area including that part of Congo was controlled by the Tutsi people. It all sounds ok at first like Nkunda is standing against injustice, standing for the rights of the weak, unless you know that Nkunda is notorious for kidnapping children to force them to join his army, raping women, burning villages, stealing crops and food, and any other human rights violation possible. Because his so called purpose is to help the Tutsi people it is suspected he receives support from Rwanda which is likely considering Rwanda’s long involvement and medaling in Congo during the first and second Congo wars. So what is going on right now is, after months of hiding and preparing Nkunda is back in action from a dramatic kidnapping of children in August to hard core fighting everyday. He is gaining group and securing whole area under his control. It is rumored there has been hiring across the border near Goma between Congo’s government forces and Rwanda. This has left 50,000 Congolese civilians fleeing for their lives with no where to go. CNN and BBC interviewed a lady with a crying baby who said for 3 days she and her children had eaten nothing and were running away as fast as they could. BBC showed a shot of refugees fleeing with bomb blasts behind them. Since 2003 millions have been displaced. They have no place to go. Now is the beginning of the growing season and being forced from their homes now almost guarantees starvation. The UN sets up refugee camps, but because of the vast number of people and squalid living conditions thousands or even tens of thousands die of disease.

The UN drama. First of all MONUC as it is known by its French acronym in Congo is the UN’s largest peace keeping mission, but clearly has been unable to solve the problems in Congo. The UN has occasionally in Congo under extreme circumstances fired upon rebel forces and successfully secured land previous rebel controlled. Since Korea this has not been an acceptable practice for the UN but like in Bosnia is occasionally allowed. Lieutenant General Vicente Diaz de Villegas of Spain recently resigned from being the head of the largest UN peace keeping mission in Congo for personal reasons after only 7 weeks on the job. There has been rioting going on from civilians targeting the UN because they are so discontent over what the UN is doing. How can all the turmoil continue to happen with such strong UN presence? Why are they even there if they are not protecting the common people? Theoretically, in the recent situation the UN is supposed to break up the fighting between the rebels and government forces come in between them and talk to each side separately and negotiate a peace agreement. Of course easier said than done. This time around the UN has done very little leaving civilians very angry. The leaders of the UN in Congo are begging the UN to send more troops. The Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s response was we cannot send soldiers to hide behind every tree, and the situation is too dangerous for the UN. I miss Kofi Annan is all I can say to that. All that I can say for this round of the violence is it is far from over.

Congo is bleeding and has been for such a long time, and desperately needs your prayers. Like the woman in the Bible who spent all of her money on doctors who failed to help her but took all she had, Congo has tried it all to stop the violence but to no avail. We have to stand on the truth of the Word of God, that with just one touch of the hem of His garment the bleeding can stop and all will be forced to say “nothing is impossible for God.” Prayer remains our most powerful weapon to combat the evil and injustice in this world.









Most of the pictures seen above were taken from the yahoo news slide show which displays a compilation of photos mostly from AFP and Reuters. A few other photos including the map were taken from BBC news.