Bunyakiri: Between insecurity and reconstrution
This post has been translated from localvoicescongo.com. Views expressed are the author’s own.
The State Post of Bunyakiri is one of the areas of South Kivu most affected by the wars that shook the region between 1996 and 2003. Although the security situation remains fragile in some of the villages, emptied of their populations, along the main road life is returning, Bunyakiri is rebuilding … little by little.
We are 75 km northwest of Bukavu, in Bulambika, the economic centre of Bunyakiri. Along the roads there are new constructions: a few hotels, a soap factory, many nganda (drinking establishments), with names like ‘13 contre 18’, ‘chez mamma Chopra’, ‘Nganda, le secours’ and houses with more than one floor, which not so long ago you could have counted on the fingers of one hand.
“Life is getting back on track … slowly. Those who can afford to are beginning to think longer term and investing, “explains a community leader. “But for others, it is still very difficult, especially for displaced households.”
According to estimates by the central office of Bunyakiri health district, the only health provider in Bulambika is still serving some 15,000 displaced persons. They left their home villages six months, or a year or two, ago fleeing insecurity and the armed groups that ravage the Kahuzi Biega National Park in the South and the Ziralo Highlands further north.
Sheltering in makeshift, dilapidated and unsanitary huts, littered along National Road 3, these displaced families live in deplorable conditions. This serves as a reminder that – far from the main road – the violence has not yet ceased. The law of armed men is still in force at the expense of a population exhausted by a conflict that has lasted nearly 15 years.
A conflict in which Bunyakiri has often been at the front line. As was the case in 1996 with the advance of Rwandan troops and Laurent Kabila’s AFDL on Kisangani, and again between 1998 and 2003, when these same Rwandan troops tried – unsuccessfully – to flush out the Mai Mai and their allies, the FDLR (Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda) for whom Bunyakiri was and remains one of the main strongholds. ”The Rwandan troops occupied the main road, the Mai Mai and FDLR were hiding in the forests and led commando-style operations against the Rwandan positions,” says the coordinator of a local NGO. ”The retaliations were always terrible. The villagers were suspected of supporting their Mai Mai brothers … entire villages were burned, from the entrance of the park right up to Bulambika. ”
With the signing of peace accords in 2003 and the withdrawal of Rwandan troops, Bunyakiri then experienced a quieter period, although still very volatile from a security perspective. Without a unified national army capable of maintaining control over the whole territory, several armed groups took up position again, and new ones were created.
The FDLR occupied and administered entire villages, collecting taxes, settling disputes. In areas controlled by government forces, it was not uncommon to come across them on market days, armed and using the opportunity to procure salt, soap and other basic necessities. ”At least they no longer needed to rob or extort money from the public to stock up,” people in Bulambika tell us.
“Today the situation has changed. Military operations (undertaken by the Congolese government in 2009 against the FDLR) have dispersed and weakened them, but has also radicalized them. In more remote areas, there are often attacks and looting. People have no choice but to flee. ”
Reconstruction along the main road and continued insecurity in the surrounding areas, the prospect of recovery for some, insecurity and uncertainty for others. In such a context, and with the approaching 28 November elections, what are the expectations of the people of Bunyakiri? We asked this question to Déo Buuma, Executive Secretary of the CPA (Action pour la Paix et la Concorde), an NGO active in the community.
Listen to the Local Voices interview with Déo Bumma
Photo credit: Local Voices