Congo Army Stories
A women I know told me a story about her younger brother. Several years ago, he decided to join Kabila the elders army. Her brother had schooling at least through the high school level but he couldn't find work in Kinshasa. He said the army would pay him $100 a month steady. His mother counseled against it but he went anyway.
They shipped him off to Kamina base in north Katanga where he got sick and died about six months later. He died because there was no doctor to see him and no military medical system to treat him. He was a long way from home.
The women who told me the story said she liked her brother and she misses him.
Another woman I know, a mundele who works for one of the conservation ngo's, said she was with her group doing a forest survey in the central part of the country. She was apart from her group when she came upon two soldiers on the trail. The soldiers had two or three women with them from a village nearby. The women were there to carry the soldiers burdens and whatever else. The women were not with the soldiers by choice.
After being told of this the ngo woman said, "no you can't take them with you. they are with me." The soldiers were profuse with their apologies, "oh, madame. we didn't know" and let the women go with the mundele madame. She took them back to their homes and was the hero of the hour. and she deserved to be.
She said she could got away with it because she was white and it wasn't in the eastern part of the country. Everything changes in east.
It is a common pattern for the Congolese army to come into a village, steal everything and make the people they stole from carry it for them. The women of these villages also have to worry about more than carrying things.
They shipped him off to Kamina base in north Katanga where he got sick and died about six months later. He died because there was no doctor to see him and no military medical system to treat him. He was a long way from home.
The women who told me the story said she liked her brother and she misses him.
Another woman I know, a mundele who works for one of the conservation ngo's, said she was with her group doing a forest survey in the central part of the country. She was apart from her group when she came upon two soldiers on the trail. The soldiers had two or three women with them from a village nearby. The women were there to carry the soldiers burdens and whatever else. The women were not with the soldiers by choice.
After being told of this the ngo woman said, "no you can't take them with you. they are with me." The soldiers were profuse with their apologies, "oh, madame. we didn't know" and let the women go with the mundele madame. She took them back to their homes and was the hero of the hour. and she deserved to be.
She said she could got away with it because she was white and it wasn't in the eastern part of the country. Everything changes in east.
It is a common pattern for the Congolese army to come into a village, steal everything and make the people they stole from carry it for them. The women of these villages also have to worry about more than carrying things.
posted by Carl at 12:36 PM
2 Comments:
Sorry to miss you before your departure, Carl. Bon voyage
There's a story at http://www.covchurch.org/cov/news/item5491
Maybe you've flown some of these folks around?
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