Our daughter Kitty is a foreign service officer with US Agency for International Developmenet (USAID) in Congo, the 12th largest country in the world. Our son-in-law is employed by the Consulate there. He sent us the article below by Mark Doyle that pretty much explains what is going on there. I don't know if the maps in the article will reproduce here.
Subject: DR Congo's rebel
kaleidoscope - map
This story includes a nice Oxfam map of the different armed
groups operating throughout the Kivus, although, as the story states; “the map,
drawn up in late November, was probably out of date almost as soon as it was
published. But it does give an idea of the extreme difficulty ordinary
civilians have in the region.”
Also includes a nice breakdown of why the Kivus are central
in these conflicts.
DR Congo's rebel kaleidoscope
4 December 2012 Last updated at
20:45 ET
By Mark Doyle BBC
International Development Correspondent
Congolese Civilians remain at the
mercy of a variety of armed groups
While
the M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have dominated headlines
in recent months, they are just one of more than two dozen armed groups
fighting in this resource-rich region.
A
new report by the aid agency Oxfam, published along with a remarkable map,
shows that the recent unrest in Goma - a strategically important trading city -
is just the tip of an iceberg of human suffering.
The
M23 rebels, named after a 23 March 2009 failed peace agreement that they claim
to want to implement, captured Goma nearly two weeks ago, before withdrawing
with their loot to positions just outside the city at the weekend.
Their
campaign began in May 2012 when they mutinied from the national army. According
to the United Nations, they had active assistance from Rwanda - which Kigali
denies.
The
M23 threat to the provincial capital Goma shuffled some of the military cards
in areas far from the border region they control because United Nations and
Congolese government army troops moved to Goma to counter them.
This
left a security vacuum in other areas which smaller rebel groups exploited.
As
the UN or the army moved out to reinforce areas under M23 threat, the smaller
groups moved in, destabilizing the situation further.
Tax to work the fields
More
than 25 rebel factions operate in just two provinces of eastern DR Congo: North
and South Kivu. They have shifting alliances and control fluid areas of
territory - but try to hang on to profitable tin or gold mines and/or routes
where travelers can be "taxed".
Strictly
speaking, the map, drawn up in late November, was probably out of date almost
as soon as it was published. But it does give an idea of the extreme difficulty
ordinary civilians have in the region.
“The small market town of Kashanga north-east of Goma... was
attacked 12 times between April and July 2012”
"Preying
on people has become an extractive industry," says Oxfam's Elodie Martel.
"Armed groups plunder money, food and whatever other resources they can
find."
In
recent years, I have made numerous journeys through the Kivus and the
kaleidoscope of armed groups you encounter is bewildering.
It
is not unusual to come across two or three armed bands contesting the same
stretch of road.
These
groups often allow foreign journalists to pass through - it would draw too much
attention to them to do otherwise.
But
Congolese civilians are not so lucky. Oxfam cites the example of the small
market town of Kashanga north-east of Goma which was attacked 12 times between
April and July 2012.
The
attackers were from the government army, and two other groups - the Patriotic
Alliance for Free and Sovereign Congo (APCLS) and the Democratic Forces for the
Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
They
were fighting over control of illegal taxes imposed on people attending the
weekly market.
In
a nearby area farmers said they had to pay the Mai Mai Nyatura group 1,000
Congolese francs ($1; £0.62) or two to three kilos of beans per person for the
right to access their fields to tend crops.
A
man from this region who asked not to be named said of the armed groups:
"Anyone who resists them or who raises their voice is immediately
killed."
Across
the Kivus there are estimated to be 767,000 displaced people.
"In
the face of abuse and exploitation on this scale there is no room for
apathy," Ms Martel said.
"This
is a humanitarian catastrophe on a massive scale and the world cannot continue
to turn its back on this tragedy," she said.
Too rich to care?
But
whatever Oxfam's well-meaning appeals, the truth is that many people around the
world do indeed shrug off DR Congo's woes.
The
news emerging from the country is so consistently bad that people seem to have
become immune to reacting.
Eastern Congo's beautiful hills
belie the danger within
Across
the country there are 2.5 million displaced. But the epicenter is the Kivus,
for a combination of reasons:
•
The Kivus have rich volcanic soil which supports crops in the valleys and
cattle grazing on the rolling hills
•
Other areas have rich mineral deposits - including tin, gold and coltan (used
in the manufacture electronic gadgets)
•
The above have attracted a relatively dense population
•
Successive waves of ethnic Tutsi and ethnic Hutu settlement in the Kivus have
destabilized and complicated the local ethnic balance
•
Neighbouring countries all exploit the weakness of Congolese institutions by
allowing their nationals to plunder DR Congo
•
The Kivus are 1,500 kilometers from the capital Kinshasa and their natural
trading route is via east Africa. This leads to yet more foreign influence.
Many people have fled their homes
several times during two decades of unrest
Oxfam's
Ms Martel said: "It is reprehensible that another year goes by with people
telling us they go to bed afraid of killings, looting and abduction - and that
women are too afraid to go to their fields to fear of being raped."
The
aid agency called on the Congolese government and UN peacekeepers in the
country to respond to people paying the ultimate price for the conflict.
But
a more fundamental rebuilding may be necessary, because neither of these
institutions have thus far been able to square up to the needs of the
population.
When
faced with a similar though much smaller-scale breakdown in law and order a
little over a decade ago, the West African state of Sierra Leone decided to
rebuild "from the army up".
With
international assistance it re-trained its security forces in a strategy that
has so far worked in helping rebuild the wider country.
But
the tragedy of DR Congo is that it may be just too rich to do this.
It
may be that the various elite actors on the Congolese stage - local and foreign
- are making so much money from the rich mineral deposits that they don't want
a functioning national army to restore order.
They
may be benefitting too much from the current chaos.
The Democratic Republic of Congo
covers 2,344,858 square km of land in the center of Africa, making it the 12th
largest country in the world.
Inside DR Congo
DR Congo Seeks Democracy
