Rapid reaction to crisis in North Kivu

15 December 2006

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Antoine Ngira lives in the village of Ruki, in the fertile highlands of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Ruki is in North Kivu province, near Goma, at the epicentre of the long-running civil war that has devastated the country.

In December 2005, Antoine’s village was attacked by Interahamwe militia, who looted and burnt down every house in the region. Five thousand households lost everything.

Caritas, the international umbrella of the British charity CAFOD, came to their aid. With DFID funding, they provided emergency assistance to help the villagers get back on their feet. Antoine told me his story:

“We are caught up in a war of which we don’t know the origin. One day last December 2005, we saw a lot of soldiers come into the village. They asked us all to come to a meeting in the parish hall. We did as they said, but when we were assembled they began to arrest people. We began to flee, this way and that, into the bush, to seek refuge. Then the soldiers burnt down all our houses. When we eventually returned, we saw that there was nothing left.

“The soldiers were not from the regular Congolese army – they were militia from the Interahamwe, and troops of Mugabu. These troops prey on the population for food and money, so they keep control by instilling fear in people through this sort of attack.

“We came to Masisi (a neighbouring parish) for help. It was here that the Curate told us about the assistance available from Caritas. We had to put together a list of all the households that had been afflicted. Two thousand five hundred households received the emergency kits – clothes for women and men, cooking pots, plates, cups and jerry cans. We’re very grateful for this assistance which has helped us through a very difficult time.

“But 2,500 households are still in need. And what we also need is some iron sheeting to rebuild our houses, and some hoes for our farming. At the moment we have no tools for farming, which makes feeding our families very difficult. We are subsistence farmers, and sell whatever extra we can grow to buy the things we cannot make, like cloth, salt, tools or medicine.”

What have you done for shelter since your houses were burnt down?

“We have had to rebuild them. We gather bits of wood and branches from the bush, construct a frame, then strengthen the walls with mud. We then gather straw to make the roof.”

Are your children able to attend school here?

“Yes, they go to school, but the school is only made of straw, so when it rains, water leaks through the roof and classes have to stop. We, the parents, rebuilt the school after the attack but it’s still not sufficient.”

And who teaches the children?

“We have a local teacher from the parish. There’s no formal system of fees; when we have a bit of extra produce, like beans, we give some to the teacher. But it’s very little.”

And how is the security situation now, is there any risk of another attack?

“Security is getting better little by little. The Congolese Army has come back to our parish now so we’re protected from the Interahamwe and other militia. But the army isn’t getting paid, so they rely on the local population to feed them. They’re living off our backs, and it really cripples us.”

What could help improve the situation for your parish?

“Apart from peace and an end to the war, there are three things we need.  The first is some help to set up an agricultural association, to help us organise our farming and increase our yields.  The second is a decent road from our parish to the nearest market.  At the moment, even if we manage to produce a good yield, we have to carry it on our heads for 6 hours to reach the market.  If the road was passable in a vehicle, we could all share a vehicle and the journey would be much quicker.

“The third is clean drinking water.  We have water but it's dirty and makes us ill.”

Do you have hope for the future?

“We do have a lot of hope because we are having elections for the first time this summer. In the past, there was only one candidate, and we were all told that it was obligatory to vote for that person (Mobutu). At the moment there are lots of different candidates, each presenting their programme, and we have a chance to vote for who we want. This gives us hope that the future can be better.”

• DFID provided £600,000 to support CAFOD’s work in eastern Congo providing emergency relief to communities affected by conflict.
• 25,490 vulnerable households received emergency relief. This equates to about 127,455 people.
• CAFOD also runs a peace and reconciliation programme working through church structures in North Kivu. DFID has supported this project since 2004. The programme works with Church, human rights and women’s groups to build trust and reconciliation between communities previously in conflict.
• CAFOD is a Catholic charity working to reduce poverty around the world. Using the strong network of Catholic churches and parishes in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, it can reach local people in even remote areas.