I had to abandon my plans to visit another camp yesterday. The Rwandese army was parading to celebrate the success of their recent campaign to disarm the rebels and their return to Rwanda. We all received strict instructions not to travel out of Goma or anywhere near the parade. (more…)
I set off early to visit a Merlin-run health centre.
It’s an unpleasant ride to a desolate area of Goma I’ve not seen before. The roads are so bad it takes a good 45 minutes to get to the tiny overcrowded clinic. It’s still early in the morning but a long queue is already forming in the dark and narrow corridors. (more…)
Munganga 3
As I drive out of Goma to camp Mungunga 3 there’s lots of talk on the local news about IDPs going home. They show government trucks picking up people and their belongings in order to drive them back to the rural areas they’ve come from. In Mungunga 3, one of the smallest camps outside Goma (there are only 4,211 people when we visit) 208 people had left between February 17 and 21. Hardly the mass repatriation we see on the TV news but people do say they are looking to go home - at some point. (more…)
I take stock of what I’ve learned in both the temporary settlements and the official camps. The data available is poor. No one knows how many are still in the villages which won’t be accessible to NGOs until security improves. I know that in some places, such as Mai Mai, people believe they are protected from bullets and combat death, many more young men have stayed behind. (more…)
Going home?
Sarah and I start the day with the 8am security briefing at the OCHA office. An official races through a list of no-go areas and latest attacks - more acronyms. This time, I have a better understanding of the local geography so it makes a bit more sense.
Another day at the office
I love the new HelpAge office. Sarah and Marbey are renting a local house in ‘downtown Goma’ opposite the FARDC (Congolese army) head quarters. The owner has agreed to completely renovate the place so it’s white, bare and echo-y. It’s pretty big and Marbey shows me around proudly - Eventually, when the renovating is done, he will move in too. Live upstairs and work downstairs. (more…)
Temporary settlements
The day after my beautilful journey through Rwanda, I go to see three temprorary settlements of IDP’s (internally displaced people) in Goma’s poorest bidon-ville (slum) where the city meets the Nyiragongo volcano.
Rats
At this point I have to take my hat off to Julia, Jude, Marbey, Sarah and the Merlin office for their extraordinary planning skills. It all falls into place as if by magic. I get my temporary visa, I meet up with Marbey and Sarah exactly as planned and check in safely in my hotel.
Alone in my lovely room that overlooks the lake I have an hour to rest before our first meeting with three doctors from Merlin; that’s when I ‘clock’ the two huge rats perched on the desk staring back at me. I let out a dramatic cry, enough to frighten them into the tiny gap below the door. Rats? not a chance; I’m out of here…I move to the Caritas guest house with equally beautiful views of the lake. (more…)
Gustave
Amazing. At one minute to dawn it’s completely still. I continue to doze, vaguely aware that birds are singing and then, with the first lights it all switches to life. Women’s voices calling each other in a foreign language under my window, beeping bikes, then cars, kigali’s up and so i am. It’s not 6am yet…
Gustave picks me up at 8. I like him straight away. He has a soft voice and gentle manners. He is going to drive me to Goma, a three hours trip through the Rwandan countryside. (more…)
Benedicte Vene is a communications consultant who was sent to the DR Congo on a mission to find out why there are so few older people in the displacment camps in Goma and how they are surviving…
