Democratic Republic of Congo

Blog Post:  Posted April 23, 2010, 3:26 pm by Cassandra Nelson

In Congo, saving trees and lives

Country: DR Congo

Topics: Women's Empowerment, Emergencies, Economic Development, Displacement, Conflict & War

Last November and December I was working with Mercy Corps in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I had the chance to make a photo essay on our work that the BBC is featuring on their website.

In 2009, the number of displaced people in eastern DRC reached more than 1.5 million. Today, the violence and displacement situation continues.

Camps for refugees and displaced people pose significant threats to personal security for women and girls who must leave the camps to collect firewood in the surrounding forests. Last year, Mercy Corps conducted a survey of displaced households and found that 90 percent of the people surveyed reported they had experienced harassment, violence or rape while collecting firewood in the forests.

Mercy Corps is training women to build fuel-efficient stoves and make bio-mass briquettes, to reduce the amount of firewood women need to collect in unsafe and remote areas where rapes typically occur. The fuel-efficient stoves and bio-mass briquettes also reduce the massive deforestation in the area.

Please check out my photo essay on the BBC for more information on this critical programme that Mercy Corps is implementing.

Blog Post:  Posted August 11, 2009, 9:02 am by Linda Mason

Secretary Clinton Visits the Most Dangerous Place To Be a Woman

Country: DR Congo

Topics: Women's Empowerment, Conflict & War

While her husband's trip to North Korea to release two American women journalists has recently dominated headlines, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes on a mission that has the potential to save countless women's lives. As part of her seven nation tour of Africa, Mrs. Clinton travels on Tuesday to the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to bring international attention to the plight of women there.

The Congo has one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world, but more than a decade of raging conflict has ravaged this lush and fragile country in the heart of Africa. The situation there is one of the most severe and under-reported humanitarian crises of our time, claiming over five million lives and pushing nearly 2 million people into massive displacement camps. The women and girls in eastern Congo have paid a particularly high price. Rape of women and girls, some as young as five years old, happens with impunity, often by men in uniform. No wonder it is considered by many to be the most dangerous place on earth to be a woman. Women are particularly at risk when they leave the camps daily to gather much needed firewood where groups of marauding men and soldiers lurk around the periphery. More than a quarter of the women in this area have been victims of or are witnesses to sexual violence.

I recently traveled to the region and met a 34-year old mother of four named Beatrice. Beatrice had lost her husband during the conflict. Her younger sister had been raped, and Beatrice herself has barely escaped attacks several times outside the camp. Yet she and her sisters still leave the camp for firewood.

Congolese women must live under such perilous circumstances everyday. The more displaced families cram into the camps -- all of them in need of wood for light, heat and fuel -- the more pressure they put on Congo's heavily deforested land. And the greater the risks for the women who must travel even further away each time just to cook their next meal. Because of the dangers, Beatrice doesn't allow her children to help her gather the wood, but that means she needs to leave the camp more frequently.

International non-government agencies in the camps are struggling with the enormous problems of the displaced, but they are also making an important difference in people's lives.

For example, to help people like Beatrice, Mercy Corps offers food, clean drinking water, latrines and other emergency relief supplies. One innovative form of our assistance comes in the form of a fuel efficient stove. The stove is made up of mixture of not much more than sand, clay, brick and a steel bowl. These simple, biodegradable and locally available materials are all it takes to create a stove that reduces the use of wood by a stunning 75%.

Although its primary role is to slow the rate of deforestation and reduce carbon emissions, this humble fuel-efficient stove has tremendous benefits for women. First of all, it means they only have to leave the camps once or twice a week for firewood, which significantly reduces their burden and their exposure to attack. Moreover, women can be trained to make and sell the stoves in the local markets for much-needed income.

Lastly, these stoves have generated some £96,000 worth of credits in the carbon market from the reduction in carbon emissions. Mercy Corps uses the proceeds to teach women farming and other vocational skills, as well as offer micro-finance services.

While Mercy Corps and other aid agencies work hard everyday to improve lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, our work is just a small part of a much larger effort needed in aid and security policy.

The Congolese government, the United Nations peacekeeping force, called MONUC, and the international community, must all do their part to stem the tide of violence against women. The Congolese government must prosecute rape and sexual violence and rout out members of their own police and army if they have been convicted of such a crime, even if they are high ranking military officers. The UN peacekeepers must have a clear and visible presence near displaced communities. They must also be willing to use force to protect civilians, a key element of their mandate. The US and other countries that rely on Congo's vast natural resources need to understand that an investment in economic development in eastern Congo gives men and young boys an alternative to war and plundering.

Mrs. Clinton's courageous show of support on this visit needs to be followed up with more aid resources as well as tough and ongoing pressure for greater security and accountability.

This piece was originally published on The Huffington Post.

One Table:  Posted June 19, 2009, 2:36 pm by Laura Miller

Simple things can make the biggest difference in the DRC

Country: DR Congo

Topics: Environment, Emergencies, Displacement, Conflict & War, Climate Change

When asked by family or friends after a field visit, "How was your trip?" or "What's new in Africa?" I'm often guilty of giving oversimplified responses, though I realize our programmes go way beyond "fine" and "interesting."

For example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the more interesting and complex places on the planet. It's hard to sum up years of conflict, more than five million conflict-related deaths, thousands of displaced people, and the beauty of the country and its people in a few words.

Fighting in North Kivu Province of the DRC has displaced tens of thousands of Congolese. IDP camps and the local population currently host more than 100,000 people. This population influx would create a strain on resources under any circumstances, but has become a critical issue in the DRC where the IDP camps in the Goma area border Virunga National Park — one of the most important ecological sites on the African continent.

Virunga National Park is not only home to two of the earth's most active volcanoes, the only mountain glaciers in Africa, and the almost extinct mountain gorilla, its forests are the major source of charcoal for the city of Goma. Charcoal is widely used as cooking fuel, and its production has been leading to a loss of forest cover for decades.

Last month, I had the chance to visit IDP camps where Mercy Corps is implementing an environmental programme. What started as a fuel-efficient stove pilot project in 2007 has expanded to include firewood distributions, seedling nurseries, reforestation activities, and environmental education.

So far, Mercy Corps has provided fuel-efficient stoves to 20,000 displaced families. Rather than using charcoal, these stoves burn either wood or biomass briquettes and only needs half the cooking fuel required by traditional stoves. These stoves also emit less black carbon than traditional cooking methods.

Overall, the programme has been a hit. Beneficiaries I spoke with were ecstatic about the cost and time savings they're realizing. I met with several women and asked what they are doing with the money that they would have used otherwise on firewood. One woman told me that she's able to buy more food for her family, another told me that she can afford to take her daughter to the health centre when she falls ill.

Even in a country as complex as the Congo, it's sometimes the simple things that make the biggest difference.

One Table:  Posted June 18, 2009

A Stove to Save Lives

Country: DR Congo

Topics: Conflict & War, Displacement, Emergencies, Food/Nutrition, Hunger, Rural, Women's Empowerment

For 59-year-old Dafroza Baleberaho, building improved cookstoves isn’t just about preventing climate change, it’s about saving women’s lives.

Dafroza, who had to gather her six children and suddenly flee a rebel attack on her village , works as a trainer and community organiser here in the sprawling, congested Buhimba displacement camp — temporary home to more than 13,000 people who, like her, escaped brutal fighting between eastern Congo’s warring factions. Since taking a two-day class from Mercy Corps field officers last October, she’s helped more than 60 women in the camp construct improved cookstoves.

These stoves — which require only mud, sand, water and rocks to build – consume less than half the firewood as the traditional campfires that families use to boil water and prepare food. That’s a lifesaving difference for women like Dafroza...

Read the rest of Dafroza's story — and tales of other women who are working hard to feed their families — at onetable.mercycorps.org.

Blog Post:  Posted June 17, 2009, 3:37 pm by Laura Miller

Congo's "conflict charcoal"

Country: DR Congo

Topics: Environment, Displacement, Conflict & War

Most people have heard of conflict or "blood" diamonds, but fewer may be aware of conflict charcoal. The charcoal trade in Congo's North Kivu Province is primarily controlled by a long-standing rebel group. Much of the charcoal in Goma is produced from trees in Virunga National Park.

While in Goma recently, Balemba, an employee of the park service (ICCN), came to speak to Mercy Corps about activities in the park. The ICCN patrols the park regularly, both to protect the gorilla population, but also to discourage charcoal production in the park. Balemba works with communities that live on the borders of Virunga National Park and strives to find ways to increase revenue for the local population in an environmentally friendly way.

Currently it is common practice for communities to engage in the charcoal trade as a way to make money. As an alternative, the ICCN is distributing biomass briquette presses to local associations. The associations receive training on how to make the briquettes and are responsible for collecting the biomass (which includes dried grass, sawdust or paper) needed to make them.

One press can produce approximately 500 briquettes per day. The briquettes can be used to cook with and are a cleaner energy source than charcoal. Mercy Corps is currently distributing briquettes to 700 beneficiaries for use in fuel efficient stoves.

Balemba warned that while the briquettes are largely a positive development, there are negative consequences to offsetting the charcoal trade. Briquette presses may be destroyed by the rebels that control the charcoal trade, or community members may be forced to produce or transport charcoal for them.

As with most things in Congo, it's a complex situation.

Blog Post:  Posted June 8, 2009, 1:26 pm by Erynn Carter

A handy gift for Dad

Country: DR Congo

About two years ago I found myself in the Democratic Republic of the Congo monitoring a distribution of humanitarian supplies to families who'd been displaced from their homes by fighting. I was monitoring the mosquito net site. Each person was to receive only one net. And as logistics go, the nets were packaged with super strong binding that couldn't be torn. Between three different distribution points (one each for nets, blankets and biscuits) we had one razor blade, which was being run back and forth between the different sites to undo the tight bindings for the supplies.

But then — voila — I remembered my Leatherman.

Shortly before that trip, Leatherman Tool Group had generously donated a set of their all-in-one Blast multitools through our Material Aid department for me and my colleagues on the Global Emergency Operations team. The Blast has 16 tools — wire stripper, pliers, knife, saw, screwdriver, etc. — in one compact package. I'd put mine in my pocket. (My colleagues Richard and Mugur carry the tool in its case on their belts.)

That day in Congo, I used the tool's "420HC Clip Point Knife" to extract the mosquito nets all day long. So we didn't have to run the razor blade all over the place, which, of course, led to a more efficient use of that time and smoother operations for the whole distribution. And at every distribution afterwards, I was asked if I brought my sharp knife!

Leatherman donated more than enough for our team, so I was able to leave mine behind with a colleague in Congo.

We're offering the same handy tool I used then — right down to the engraved Mercy Corps logo! — as part of a special Father's Day Mercy Kit.

Everyone on our emergency team carries one of these tools, and we love them!

Posted April 30, 2009 by Roger Burks

Helping Those With Nowhere Else to Go

Country: DR Congo

Topics: Conflict & War, Displacement, Water/Sanitation, Women's Empowerment

Several dozen women stand on jagged volcanic rock in the pouring rain. The drenched clothes they're wearing are among the only possessions they were able to salvage when fleeing burning homes and brutal violence. They've had to drink rainwater from dirty puddles just to survive.

Young sons are the only men to be found; husbands and fathers have perished in the war. And so, in the midst of eastern Congo's ongoing conflict, shattered families led by mothers have come to places like this: a primary school on the outskirts of a war-torn city called Goma.

Odette Bihoyoki is one of approximately one million people who have been displaced by fierce fighting between government troops and rebel forces in this lawless, chaotic region. The 34-year-old mother of six was forced from her home more than seven months ago, but not before soldiers killed her 4-year-old son and tossed his body into a latrine.

There was no time to grieve. She walked for four days from her village to a sprawling displacement camp to the north of Goma — but, within days of their arrival, gunshots tore through the camp as rebel forces pushed south. Odette and her children scrambled for their lives alongside hundreds of others, eventually finding refuge at this school. They live in the classrooms at night.

But, when class is in session, they have no place to go. So they sit and wait — sometimes in the rain. Since they don't live in an officially recognized displacement camp, they don't receive supplies like food, clothing or shelter supplies. They were completely on their own until Mercy Corps reached out to them last October.

Today, we're delivering more than 10,000 gallons of water per day to the 178 families living here. We've given them hygiene supplies and other small household items to help make their lives a little easier. And we're digging latrines nearby to help prevent the deadly diseases that often sweep through displaced populations in this part of Congo.

Mercy Corps has even found ways to employ women like Odette in the short term — giving them a bit of income to buy food.

"I thank Mercy Corps for providing us water, so we don't have to buy it or drink from dirty puddles," Odette said. "It's one less thing we have to worry about."

Worry — and uncertainty — stalks these places every day. There are not only concerns about how to feed their children, but what the future holds. And in this part of Congo, that has been unclear for more than a decade.

"I know very little about hope," Odette laments, "but I want a better future for my children."

You can help us meet their immediate needs — and begin to secure a more hopeful future — with a generous donation today. Life for women like Odette in eastern Congo is about survival. Please help us deliver more lifesaving assistance to those who need it most.

Blog Post:  Posted January 29, 2009, 11:08 am by Roger Burks

C'est Le Depart

Country: DR Congo

Topics: Emergencies, Displacement, Conflict & War

Today, I am leaving Goma to go back home — more than 35 hours of flights and layovers on my way back to Portland, and my family. And, over the course of the morning, I have heard one phrase over and over: "C'est le depart?"

It means, literally, "Are you leaving?" But, as with many things in Africa, the phrase has deeper meaning. There's a sense of loss. Affection. The expectation of return.
 
For me, that return will come some day, I'm sure. Each time I leave Africa, I bring back more stories. And those stories hold part of me to the red soil — or rocky ground — of this continent.
 
When I came to Africa exactly 15 years ago, I was a fresh-faced 23-year-old. My age and appearance conspired to give me a particular nickname among those in my village: "Petit," which means "young one."
 
But today, with gray hair prominent in my beard and at my temples, I gained a different nickname during my short time in eastern Congo: "Papa." I noticed younger men and women referring to their elders this way. And so I carry that remarkable distinction back to my home, where my 4-year-old son anxiously awaits.
 
I will show him the photographs I took in the displacement camps, and tell him stories of the people I met. After all, many children in the camps know him as well: After taking pictures, I'd often stop and show them the few pictures of my son that I keep on the camera. They would marvel at that tiny window into America. And, honestly, it made me feel somewhat guilty and sad.

There is also a measure of guilt and a sense of uncompleted work in my departure. I'm leaving after two incredibly eventful weeks, when the future of eastern Congo appears more promising than at any time in its recent history. But, most likely, that promise of change will result in even more need for assistance. Villages have been burned and lives shattered. The work of picking up the pieces, then rebuilding, looms large.
 
When I return to Portland, I will seek out news about eastern Congo more intently. I will write stories about my time here until I've exhausted my notes and memory. And I will take every occasion to tell folks about what I've seen, heard and experienced here.
 
This place, and the people who are bidding me "farewell" today, are infinitely deserving of your support, prayers and thoughts. Please don't forget about them. I never will.

Blog Post:  Posted January 28, 2009, 11:07 am by Roger Burks

History's Traffic Jam

Country: DR Congo

Topics: Emergencies, Displacement, Conflict & War

This afternoon, on the way back to the office from Mugunga II Camp, our team was caught in massive gridlock almost as soon as we hit Goma's city limits. As we inched forward, everyone in our vehicle wondered what could be causing the snarl.

An accident, maybe? A parade? Or worse, some trouble up ahead?
 
No, it ended up being CNDP rebels at a local gas station. They were climbing into huge open-bed trucks with their erstwhile enemies, Congolese government soldiers. Literally hundreds of citizens had gathered along the road  — some standing on top of their cars — to watch this event. After all, it was history being made.
 
This very public mixing of two former adversaries is called "brassage" here in Congo. It's used when militias such as the CNDP integrate into the national army, forming a unified fighting force. The truce that was signed just as I arrived last week — along with the recent arrest of rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda — paved the way for this moment.
 
And it is, according to everyone from displaced people to regional analysts, a critical step toward a long-awaited peace. So everyone gawked as Congolese government soldiers in their drab olive-green fatigues stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their camouflage-clad CNDP compatriots. I'm sure few ever thought they'd see it happen; most feared a much different outcome once the rebels reached Goma.
 
But the soldiers seem surprisingly at ease. Some are laughing. They are packed into the truck like cargo — fearsome human cargo bundled with automatic machine guns and rocket launchers.
 
A local policeman dressed in yellow stops traffic so that the military trucks can pull onto the road from the gas station. The trucks head westward; it looks like they're ready to rumble. Most likely, that rumble will be felt across eastern Congo for the foreseeable future.
 
I just hope it will lead to peace, because so many in Mugunga II and other camps are depending on it.
 
Meanwhile, I've heard and read that General Bosco Ntaganda, Nkunda's former CNDP chief of staff and second-in-command, has been spending his days in Goma. In fact, one article stated that he was seen sipping coffee at a local café that overlooks Lake Kivu. This is a guy wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including conscription of child soldiers.
 
I was at that particular caf´ on the day in question, on that same balcony. In fact, I am seriously wondering if I might have said "bon soir" to an indicted war criminal.
 
But that's the state of affairs in and around Goma: rebel generals are relaxing by the lake. Their former subordinates are on their way to fight fearsome insurgents who hide in primeval forests. Most everyone else is convinced that peace is finally at hand.
 
Still, questions linger: Is the enemy of my enemy my friend, or a means to an end, or an unpredictable companion on the road to peace?

Posted January 28, 2009 by Linda Mason

Stronger UN Role is Needed in the Congo

Country: DR Congo

The seemingly endless turmoil in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo took another turn last week. Thousands of Rwandan troops entered the country, apparently by invitation of the Congolese government, to rout Hutu military forces that had fled Rwanda after the genocide 14 years ago. They arrested General Laurent Nkunda, the leader of the Congolese Tutsi rebel group who up until last week was an ally of Rwanda and reportedly received arms, supplies, and soldiers from the Rwandan military.

These moves took the world by surprise, including the UN peacekeeping forces stationed in the Congo.

Experts are weighing in on whether these moves will eventually stabilise eastern Congo. But it is clear that the military build-up and shifting alliances mean more brutal fighting in the short-term and more suffering for countless Congolese families that simply want a safe place to live.

Civilians in Congo continue to pay the price in this long war - despite protections from the United Nations' largest peacekeeping force. Over 5.5 million Congolese have died in this conflict. To put the death toll in perspective, 400,000 people have died in Darfur in its six-year conflict, and 800,000 people died in the 100-day Rwandan genocide. In addition to the death toll in Congo, rape is pervasive - 23 percent of the population in eastern Congo have reported witnessing acts of sexual violence. Rape happens with impunity.

I just returned from Congo and found a heartbreakingly beautiful country that has been ripped apart by brutality and lawlessness. International media portray the conflict in eastern Congo as a proxy war between Congo and Rwanda. Unfortunately, it is far more complex. The conflict is primarily a fight over resources - vast amounts of minerals and rich arable land. To gain advantage, militias of all stripes attack villages, raping and slaughtering all who are in their way. Many soldiers, men and boys, have no political loyalty but are either forcibly conscripted or join a militia in order to survive. If they want to eat, they fight. Congo is in desperate need of jobs, functioning markets, and agriculture — in short, economic alternatives to war.

One million civilians - out of a population of 6 million in eastern Congo — have fled to displacement camps. As I traveled throughout the countryside, I was shocked on two accounts. First, eastern Congo is a beautiful, resource-rich land. It is lush and green, with forests of giant Eucalyptus trees, rivers and waterfalls, and areas rich in minerals. But I was also shocked to see that this land is uncultivated, crops are idle, and no commerce or trucks are on the roads. Instead there are displacement camps and armed militias roaming the roads and villages.

There are also many bases for the MONUC, the UN's peacekeeping force of 17,000 soldiers. These bases are enclosed, well-protected, and set away from the villages. I saw UN patrols but I never saw a soldier outside his vehicle or mingling with civilians. Few soldiers speak the local language, and many do not know the local communities, and have rarely used force to protect civilian communities, the key element of their mandate.

After numerous displaced Congolese were attacked last November, the UN Security Council voted to send in an additional 3,000 troops. This recognition of the enormity of the problem and the UN's willingness to augment existing troops is laudable. But to be effective, MONUC needs additional support and resources from the international community, including the United States, and must focus intensely on two objectives.

First, it must be willing to use deadly force to protect civilians. Without a credible military threat, attacks on villages will not stop. Second, MONUC needs to gain the confidence of the civilians it is protecting. Swahili-speaking soldiers need to be visibly present on the roads and in the villages in conflict areas. They need to break up roadblocks, allow freedom of movement, provide local stability and security, and report abuses from any of the military groups.

The UN's peacekeeping role is a vital one — both armed protection and local confidence-building. The Congolese people deserve both now.

Linda Mason is Chair of Mercy Corps' Board of Directors and founder of Bright Horizons Family Solutions.

Editor's note: This Op-Ed originally appeared in The Boston Globe.