News and vignettes
It's the planes that scare me. You can hear them, you some times spot them, and you have no idea where their terror will fall. That waiting game, that I first experienced in the desert of Libya almost a year and a half ago.
On August 10, I arrived in Aleppo to the same Free Syrian Army base that I had been at the day before. In the courtyard, a huge hole had appeared over night. Four bombs had ...
We jump out of the car and run across a "sniper alley", darting through a hole in the opposite wall. What this wall once protected is now nothing but rubble, across which we scramble. Our heads are low as we run, hunched up and through another wall, across a road strewn with detritus, through another hole and bounding over mounds of rubble. We climb a makeshift ...
I've been here before. Almost three years ago, I was crammed in the back of a shared taxi, making the journey between Kilis, the Turkish border town, and Aleppo. "Güle gale Turkish, goodbye English" said one of the three Turks with whom I shared the taxi. The taxi driver used each of our passports to buy ...
After two weeks of relative calm in the M23-FARDC (Congolese army) conflict, fighting raged again yesterday around Rumangabo and Kibumba, the stage for the United Nation’s defences for Goma.
Heavy artillery and gunfire has caused thousands to flee their homes. Reports from Katale, which is currently inaccessible from Goma, talk of many huddled on the airstrip outside the UN base there. In Kibati, on the outskirts of the provincial capital, an aid agency say nearly 8000 have arrived.
Last night, they huddled outside under a heavy storm, and their numbers had swelled this afternoon, with forty people filling one, small classroom. The desks are stacked up outside as some of the rooms are used to register the displaced.
Land-cruisers emblazoned with aid agency logos mill about, but people here say that they have little to eat, and many will spend a cold night outdoors.
Fighting continued to rage today around Rumangabo, where the headquarters of the Virunga National Park is situated. Rebels had withdrawn from Rutshuru after they took it two weeks ago, but today they were fighting again for the town. As I post this, Jason Stearns says he has confirmed reports that neighbouring Kiwanja has fallen to M23 rebels. Incidentally, the UN has a large base there, manned by Indian peacekeepers.
An M23 rebel stands overlooking the town of Bunagana, on the border with Uganda
When I last crossed the border from Kisoro to Bunagana, the Congolese authorities were in full bureaucratic swing, and battles raged further down the hill. The Congolese army (FARDC) were fighting the M23 rebels, whilst the United Nations swore to protect the town from falling.
Less than two months later, it is now M23 that control the border, and a relative calm exists in the half-emptied town. Men in uniforms identical to those of their FARDC counterparts walk through Bunagana, for the most part, defectors from the army. Though there are those wielding guns that are dressed in other uniforms, of unidentified origin.
Despite fears of an M23 march on Goma — for which defences have been heavily stepped up in recent weeks — Bishop Jean-Marie Runinga, the political coordinator for the group, says that they have no intention of heading there. He also strongly denies any Rwandan backing of the group, saying, rather incongruously, that if they did have Rwandan support then they would be in Goma by now.
On market-day, shops near to the border are bustling, with trucks being unloaded onto the roadside. At the other end of the town, an eery quiet reigns. Life is continues in Bunagana, but with close proximity to the Ugandan escape route. A border that many are still crossing come night-fall.
Some 20km away in the neighbouring Ugandan tourist-town of Kisoro, thousands fill the Nyakabande Transit Centre. Many have fled due to fears of M23 looting and recruitment, but those remaining in the rebel-held town are testament to the low incidence rate. One man tells me that the soldiers are well-behaved, just that they become a little rowdy at night.
The rebels seem well in control of the area, with none of the gunfire or shelling of my previous visit audible. Their ranks are growing with new defectors, and their confidence is increasing after recent military successes. Yet many of Bunagana’s remaining residents wonder how long the peace will last, and when war will return.
The "Bishop" Jean-Marie Runiga walks through the town of Bunagana, accompanied by M23 police
