News About Congo

Too Close for Comfort

Unbelievable! I was flying from Kinshasa to Kananga on Wednesday, too. I did not hear about the crash until Thursday night. As I was reading my Google News Alert, I came across news of the crash. News does not travel far in the Congo. Seven died in Congo plane crash -minister (http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSLU989857) Seven people died in Wednesday's plane crash in Democratic Republic of Congo, its transport minister said on Thursday. The Boeing 737 was flying from Bangui, capital of Central African Republic (CAR), to Zimbabwe for a maintenance check and was carrying crew and mechanics when it crashed around 210 km (125 miles) east of Kinshasa. "There were two crew members aboard as well as five mechanics, who were accompanying the plane ... There were no survivors," Transport Minister Matthieu Pita told Reuters. Pita said the plane had made a brief stopover in neighbouring Congo Republic and was registered in Central African Republic. He said the crew had not notified aviation authorities in Kinshasa of their flight plan and the plane's owner was still unknown. The government in CAR issued a statement on Thursday confirming the deaths, saying the two crew members were from Congo Republic while others killed were from France, CAR, Zimbabwe and Cameroon. The plane belonged to a CAR-based company called BAKO AIR and had been in and out of service in recent years, the government in Bangui said. According to the International Air Transport Association, Africa's air accident rate is six times worse than the rest of the world.

The Prisons Are Hell (period)

The conditions of the prisons in Congo are just plain hell.  Here's an article written by a journalist who was jailed for six month.  He survived but many other prisoners did not survive.  You need the read the entire by following the link.

Congo (DRC): Journalist recalls disturbing prison ordeal

Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo) - Hell. That’s how journalist Ngoy Kikungula wa Maloba sums up the hunger, fear and misery he experienced during his six months in a Congolese prison. Released a month ago, Kikungula, editor of the Lubumbashi newspaper Le Lushois, was arrested after publishing an article about Rwandan rebels advancing on the Katangan capital.

The story upset the local authorities, and he was taken to a Lubumbashi military prison, just the beginning of his ordeal. Kikungula told IWPR that his first glimpse of the other inmates and their surroundings was shocking.

“What did I see behind the door? Imps. Dirty, skinny with red and threatening eyes, almost naked, walking in a room with a repulsive odour caused by hemp smoke, cigarettes, urine, faeces and people who haven’t washed for a very long time,” said Kikungula.“It is just like hell. The only one missing is the devil, to push you inside with his fork.”

He was deposited in small room, 7 by 3 metres, packed with 120 other prisoners. As night fell, the conditions deteriorated further when a can filled with urine overflowed, soaking those who slept nearby. “There was no air. To breathe, you have to be close to the bars but to get there you have to fight,” said Kikungula.

And the next morning brought little relief. It became clear there was no food, water, medicine or access to healthcare. Inmates under escort are often forced to forage for food and drink outside the prison. The lucky few have families living nearby who can help out.

Kikungula said the visitors began arriving at noon to bring food, “One by one, women give to the soldiers the food they brought … and they give it to the person concerned. But most of the detainees have no visits, hence no food. They must satisfy themselves with crumbs left by those who have eaten.”

At 6 pm he said the prisoners were ordered to buy a plastic bag and two cigarettes.

“I’m told that we can go to the toilet only once a day, at 5 am. The guy at my left tells me that when you need to relieve yourself, you stand up and defecate in the bag. Before that, you give a cigarette to the person in front of you and to the person behind you so they won’t smell it. What a hell,” he recalled.

Former Fighters Turn to Peaceful Means to Express Themselves

This is another great trial to promote the peace process in eastern Congo.  The government of Congo needs to encourage peaceful discourse. 

DRC: Armed groups sign their own “death certificate”

Eighteen rebel and self-defence militia groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) signed an agreement on 18 April to dissolve their organisations, although some expressed concern that the grievances that led them to take up arms had not been fully addressed.

The agreement follows a series of undertakings aimed at restoring peace to the region’s restive Kivu provinces, a process that has already seen thousands of fighters integrated into the national army.

“In this declaration all the groups clearly announced that they no longer exist,” said Apollinaire Malumalu, the coordinator of the committee that is following up progress on the various peace accords.

“From now on, former fighters who integrate into civilian life will use peaceful means to express themselves,” he said.

Farewell and Welcome to Dikembe Mutombo

Mutombo of the NBA's Houston Rockets is retiring from his basketball career.  I would like to welcome him to life after retirement.  I know Congo will be on his mind.

NBA's Mutombo calls it quits after knee injury

Dikembe Mutombo, an 18-year veteran of the National Basketball Association from the Democratic Republic of Congo, says his career is over following a left knee injury suffered Tuesday.

"Nobody ever thought they'd be carrying the big guy out like a wounded soldier," Mutombo said.

Mutombo, a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and eight-time NBA All-Star, ranks second in NBA's all-time blocks with 3,289.

Mutombo, known for his humanitarian outreach programs in Africa, has averaged 9.8 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks in a career that has seen him play for Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York and the Rockets.

"Ruined", A Play About the Other Side of Congo, wins the Pultizer's Prize for Drama

"Ruined", written by Lynn Nottage, won the 2009 Pultizer's Prize for Drama.  The play portrays a different side of the Congo.  I thought it had a good chance to win.

The playwright stated, "I sought to sustain the complexity of the modern DRC, a country that's been ravaged by a brutal war, and where the unspeakable has become commonplace. The challenge in writing the play was to find optimism where there is seemingly none, to mine the ugliness for seeds of beauty. The DRC is a place where hope and disillusionment do a fragile dance. It is in this tension of opposites that my play exists."

"Through the eyes of this savvy businesswoman who both protects and profits from the women whose bodies have become battlegrounds, Nottage captures the constantly shifting allegiances and tragic absurdity that marks the civil war in the DRC. Ruined, rendered with Nottage's trademark humanity, clarity and surprising humor, gives a glimpse of a country that has suffered immeasurable losses since the beginning of this war that has raged for more than a decade."

The Killing Continues in Eastern Congo

Less than 2 days ago, I viewed a special screening of the movie, "As We Forgive".  It is a story about reconciliation in Rwanda between Tutsi survivors and their Hutu perpetrators.

The Rwandan genocide continues in Congo. 

Eight killed in eastern Congo attacks 

Eight people were killed and hundreds of homes set ablaze in two overnight attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwandan Hutu rebels, witnesses said on Saturday.

Residents of Luofu, a town 180 km (110 miles) north of the eastern town of Goma, said rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) set fire to more than 250 homes in what they believed was a reprisal attack.

"The FDLR came last night, lots and lots of them. They burned nearly the entire village. We counted around 255 houses burned and we counted seven people killed, including five children," said Luofu village chief Emmanuel Murindu.

"The five children burned inside their house," he told Reuters, adding that the police chief was seriously wounded.

Insecticide-treated Netting Prevents Malaria

Malaria is preventable!  Insecticide-treated netting is the most effective intervention against malaria.  Netting is an affordable prevention. 

Malaria - A global affordable healthcare crisis

Deux-Anges’s mother and father do not make much more than $20 to $30 dollars per month selling small items such as soap or sugar along the sides of Goma’s roads in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Living in the poorest slum in of the provincial capital, Ndoole Bamyere cannot afford for any of her four children to fall sick.

So when Deux-Anges became weak with high fever on Friday, Ndoole waited until her temperature was dangerously high before bringing her to the local health centre.

As we come upon World Malaria Day, the world is reminded it has only two years to meet the 2010 targets of delivering effective and affordable protection and treatment to all people at risk of malaria.

Malaria is the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) most common killer disease. One in five children does not make it to their fifth birthday because of it.

Gold Miners Work for a Bucket of Dirt Each Day

Gold miners work all day long shoveling through tons of dirt.  At the end of the day, they are paid one bucket of dirt as their day's wage.

Do you feel lucky?

Of blood and gold in Congo By Mohammed Adow in Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo

In the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeast situated close to the Uganda border, thousands of miners are working in muddy pits, extracting sand, mud and rocks in the search for gold.

But they are not getting rich and their work is risky.

As international gold traders begin to cash in on the high demand for gold and precious metals caused by the global financial crisis, little of the high returns ever reach the mining communities.

For miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) decades of gold mining should have provided a ticket to prosperity but in reality it has trapped them in a cycle of violence and poverty.

Al Jazeera recently gained access to gold mines in the Ituri District.

Gold there is found in two forms – either embedded in rock or as loose pieces of varying sizes hidden in the earth or sand, often found deep under river beds.

Most of the mines are operated by artisanal miners.

Every morning 19-year-old Jean Faustin Mandro dutifully shows up for work and toils his way through tonnes of earth. It is the only way he can feed his daughter and wife. 

"Work is very hard here but there is no other work for us to do," he told Al Jazeera.

And there is no guarantee he will be payed for his efforts. At the end of the day each labourer is given a bucket of earth from the pit as payment. 

It may not contain gold.

Innocent Musubi, another miner, searched through his day's wage-bucket at the end of a long day, but he found nothing. It means he will have to return to his family empty-handed and try his luck the next day.

"Working in a gold mine means you depend on luck to get money," he says. "Some months you can make nothing and other months you can make a lot of money and forget all about the hard work you do," he added.

But, Will Congo's Poor be better off in the long run?

In the short run, I agree with the study that a ban on Congo's "conflict minerals" would likely hurt the poor.  But in the long run, we Congo and the poor be better off?

Ban on 'conflict minerals' would hurt Congo's poor

Banning minerals exported from violence-ravaged eastern Congo would threaten the livelihoods of a million miners and could worsen the world's deadliest conflict, a study said on Wednesday.

A study funded by the British government, the London School of Economics and Belgium's Ghent University published this week found such measures, although well-intentioned, would likely do more harm than good.

"The 'blood diamond' scenario where soldiers force workers to mine at gunpoint is largely absent in eastern Congo," Nick Garrett, an analyst with Resource Consulting Services and one of the study's authors, said in a statement.

"Most miners choose to mine for lack of livelihood alternatives, so stopping or disrupting the trade in minerals will hit the most vulnerable the hardest, and in all likelihood exacerbate conflict dynamics and retard development," he said.

Ruined: A Play about Women in the Congo is a 2009 Pulitzer Prize Contender

Here's a play to see whether it wins the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  Watch for the announcement on April 20!

Everything's Ruined: A Look at the Contenders for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Ruined, Lynn Nottage's lavishly praised drama set in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, is the front-runner for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, industry people are speculating.

Ruined qualifies because it was commissioned and developed by The Goodman Theatre in Chicago and had its world premiere there in fall 2008.

The story behind Nottage's play is almost as interesting as the play itself. In the summer, she and director Kate Whoriskey journeyed to Africa to inspect the human repercussions of the decade-long civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in central Africa. They interviewed women coming over the border from the Congo, fleeing atrocities, and these anguished stories later fed the narrative of Ruined. "We were expecting horror stories, but we weren't prepared for this extent of brutality," Nottage previously told Playbill. The play is set in a brothel, where women, by becoming prostitutes, escape a possibly worse fate in the outside world, where rape and sexual abuse — often with the use of bayonet or other implements — is a common war tactic.