The DR Congo has been at war for the last decades. War with itself, war with it’s neighbors, war about the massive resources. Since 1998 the total death toll is way over 5.000.000 (five million!) people, what is more than in any other war since World War II. Millions of people are on the run, living in the IDP camps, always in fear of attacks by one of the 22 armed rebel groups. Some of the children never experienced a life outside IDP camps without violence, rape, famines and disaeses, something you could see in their eyes.
In November last year, when Nkunda’s rebel troops walked to Goma, Congo came back in the international media. Goma once again was the center of the crisis as it was before, as it was after the spotlights of the international media. This city at Lake Kivu, directly at the border to Rwanda has been something like the eye of the storm for a long time. In 1994 after the Genocide in Rwanda, where more than 800.000 people were killed in a hundred days, the Hutu militia fled into Congo. In the next month hundreds of thousands of people died infected by Cholera, famine or the Rwandan troops invading into Congo. It became impossible to bury the bodies because of the volcano ashes. In 2002 the nearby volacano broke out and covered Goma with it’s lava making it a modern day Pompeij.
So now once more Goma is in the middle of a crisis, lead by warlords, fighting for the mineral resources in Eastern Congo. When you come to Goma these days you’ll see two different worlds in one. On the one hand there is this massive amount of UN peace forces, all big NGO’s and more weapons then you could count. Every second car is bulletproof as well as all the soldiers are wearing bulletproof vests. Every bigger house has razorwire and a watchtower with guards, wearing the here famous AK-47 in front of their chest. You see the Congolese army driving through town, shooting in the air, stealing chicken and stuff directly from their car. The AK-47 was once not called the congolese credit-card for no reason and you see even small kids acting with it as it’s something normal. In a region where it has become normal that childsodiers are a common alternative for the rebels because they are the most fearless, where rape is a quite normal weapon of war and stealing the last from the people is the most human thing what could happen, violence is a part of everyday-life. Directly in front of Goma are the big refugee camps, home for thousands of thousands of people, suffering in the baddest conditions imaginable.
On the other hand you’ll see the attempts to get something going, something like a normal life. You could drink your tea somewhere, the women are washing their clothes at the lake, the university is open and motos are driving in normal helldriver-style through town. You could even buy music or go to a supermarket or the bakery.
Life is different here. Something between a constant state of crisis and a normal life inside of that. Powered by the hope for peace.
Watch pictures here.
