Worldfocus was nominated for an Emmy in the “Best story in a regularly scheduled newscast” category for our coverage of the “Crisis in Congo” (Executive Producer: Marc Rosenwasser, Correspondent: Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center, Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Taylor Krauss). The “Crisis in Congo” videos also won the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the international television category.

Pascal and Vestine are alive, but still not home

Rape as a weapon of war

Worldfocus was also nominated for an Emmy in the “Outstanding feature story in a regularly scheduled broadcast” for our coverage of “21st Century Africa” (Executive Producer: Marc Rosenwasser, Correspondent: Martin Seemungal, Producer: Yuval Lion).

China strengthens trading ties in Africa

Middle class sprawls in Nairobi, Kenya

Tech advances rev up across Africa

Rwanda aims for one laptop per child

Finbar O’Reilly of Worldfocus partner GlobalPost reports on Congolese women living under the most adverse conditions who are struggling to preserve something precious to them — their beauty.

Crisis in Congo: Human Rights Watch reports that Rwandan rebel forces, Congolese army soldiers and their allies have raped at least 90 women and girls since late January 2009. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

On Thursday, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Alan Doss, said that joint efforts between Rwanda and Congo represented a “sea change” in the region that could create “real hope of being able finally to find a durable solution to the problems that have haunted this region of Congo for more than a decade.”

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch reports that Rwandan rebel forces, Congolese army soldiers and their allies have raped at least 90 women and girls since late January 2009 — when Rwandan troops first entered Congo as part of a joint military operation to target Rwandan rebel groups.

Rwandan rebel forces have also been implicated in the deaths of 180 civilians killed since Rwanda and Congo joined forces.

Maartje, a Doctors Without Borders worker in eastern Congo, writes about her encounters with Congolese rape victims in the “Condition Critical” blog:

I’m responsible for the ‘MSF/SOPROP’ clinic (‘Solidarité pour la promotion sociale et la paix’), a place where we offer help to victims of sexual violence. [...]The team is working hard to make the clinic’s presence known among the population so people know where they can get care. We have also started setting up a focus group. This is where victims can share their experiences. Listening to their input also helps us improve the care we offer.

It’s starting to work. Last Tuesday, 16 women showed up. Quietly and shyly they came inside one by one. Some women entered seeming completely broken, others appeared to take a deep breath and then square their shoulders.

I was actually nervous. I found it difficult to see all of these women, knowing how much pain they had suffered. I felt so powerless.

First we drank a cup of tea together. The conversation began to build softly. Then a few women started to answer questions posed by the nurses. Others stayed silent but listened intently. As time went by, more women spoke up and the group began to relax. After an hour, it was as if the group had undergone a complete transformation. We laughed and had fun together.

Read more eyewitness reports from women in Congo at “Condition Critical” and watch the Worldfocus signature story: Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo.

Doss also reiterated the need for troop reinforcements and equipment to the U.N. Security Council. In a post entitled “U.N. talks while Congo civilians suffer,” blogger “Dave” criticizes the U.N. for not coming through on its promises:

While joint operations were declared successful by the governments involved and the UN hailed the strides toward peace, the people of the region continue to suffer at the hands of all the combatants.

[...]The UN Security Council meets today to talk about the situation. Last year, they promised an additional 3,000 troops to aid the 17,000 blue helmets already in the Congo protect the civilian population. Not only have none of those additional troops arrived, there have been no reports that they are even en route. No one expects much from the additional troops anyway. The original Security Council mandate called for UN troops to protect UN relief operations and Congolese civilians, but their record has been dismal. Civilian casualties in the eastern provinces continue to mount and the epidemic of terror rape continues to destroy the lives of hundreds of women and their families.

The “Impudent Observer” blog calls eastern Congo an “invisible land”:

The world becomes furious at the death of a thousand civilians in Gaza, the world becomes furious at the ongoing deaths in Darfur, but the world simply ignores the death of millions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Latest reports are that at least 90 Congo women were raped and about one hundred fifty villagers killed. Unfortunately, the Congo government took into the ranks of its army former rebels and sent them on this operation. These soldiers lacked training, pay or food so they proceeded to steal, rape and kill the people they supposedly were protecting.

Cry the beloved people of Congo because no one cries for you.

Also see our coverage of the crisis in Congo and Worldfocus correspondent Michael J. Kavanagh’s Potraits of Insecurity, a slideshow of the tenuous situation in the corners of eastern Congo at Foreign Policy.

Wangari Maathai is an environmental and political activist and the founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. She also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss how to balance the economic needs of developing countries with the need for conservation, as well as the impact of climate change on Africa and how African governments are dealing with environmental challenges.

For more, listen to our online radio show on resources in the developing world.

Also, read more about the relationship between natural resources and war in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Rich natural resources partly fuel crisis in Congo.

Wangari Maathai will also be featured in ”Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai” on the PBS series Independent Lens next Tuesday, April 14.

Competition for natural resources often lies at the heart of human conflict, from oil and water in the Middle East to contested coltan in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In today’s economic environment, the demand for some resources may be declining, but the importance of who controls natural resources like oil and water — and how they control — is of pressing importance as supplies of these resources dwindle.

This proves particularly true for developing countries, where the right decisions can lead to a strong infrastructure and international influence, and the wrong decisions can lead to social strife, war or environmental destruction.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored the state of natural resource use, opportunities and dangers for resource-rich developing countries and the role played by the U.S. in this global issue. Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests.

Dave Burdick is the green editor of The Huffington Post. He follows energy, environment and green lifestyle stories. He has also been a reporter, a stand-up comedian and a copywriter for the United States’ only accredited, Buddhist-inspired university.

Michael Cohen is a professor of international affairs and director of the graduate program in international affairs at the New School University. From 1972 to 1999, he worked at the World Bank and was responsible for much of its urban policy development. He has worked in over 55 countries, published several books on urban development and has advised governments, U.N. Habitat, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions around the world.

Alf Hornborg is an anthropologist and professor of human ecology at the University of Lund, Sweden. His research has largely focused on cultural and political dimensions of human-environmental relations in past and present societies. He is the author of “The Power of the Machine” (2001) and lead editor of “Rethinking Environmental History” (2007) and “The World System and the Earth System” (2007).

See some related Worldfocus signature stories:

• Haitians destroy environment in struggle to survive
• Controversy surrounds water forum in Turkey
• Brazil emerges as an oil giant
• Brazil pioneers energy independence with ethanol

See our interactive map: The world according to energy.

Associated photo courtesy of Flickr user AdamCohn under a Creative Commons license.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Bijan Rezvani and Katie Combs

Last month, Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting went back to eastern Congo to find out what happened. Together with Lisa Biagiotti and Taylor Krauss, he produced the story of Pascal and Vestine.

Read Michael’s post on what he saw in Congo’s most remote areas: War still rages on in corners of eastern Congo.

A woman displaced by the fighting between Rwanda and FDLR, outside Pinga, North Kivu. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

PARECO rebel soldier at an integration ceremony where all rebel groups are joining the Congolese Army. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

A boy in Pinga, former FDLR stronghold. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting returned to eastern Congo last month to understand the conflicting news coming out of the region. Below he explains what he saw in some of the most remote areas of Congo. Along the way, he reconnects with Pascal and Vestine Bumbari. He reported on the signature story: Pascal and Vestine are alive in Congo, but still not home.

“Michel, we are suffering so much.” Those were the first words Pascal said to me over the phone in February, when he called out of the blue.

Pascal and his wife Vestine live on non-arable lava rocks in their new camp; his clothes are all torn; they don’t have enough food; the rain seeps through the tarp that covers their hut. Until the day we arrived, Pascal had done nothing - nothing - with his days for four months. Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps are not really the place you’d go to look for work.

There is a misconception right now that peace is spreading throughout eastern Congo. Tutsi rebel-leader Laurent Nkunda is under house arrest in Rwanda. There’s a new peace agreement between his rebel group (the CNDP) and the government. Joint-military operations between erstwhile enemies Congo and Rwanda continue against the Rwandan Hutu rebel group hiding in eastern Congo (the FDLR). It all seems like hopeful stuff.

But this new development, this surprising volte-face, is only a beginning. The main issues that caused the war in the first place - land, resources, tribalism, refugees and the continued presence of the FDLR in Congo - have not gone away.

To use the example of our own story: Pascal is Hutu, and he still doesn’t feel safe enough to return to his home, which is still - for the most part - under control of soldiers once loyal to Nkunda. And while 350,000 Congolese in North Kivu have returned home in the last few months (mainly to land formerly occupied by Nkunda’s troops), another 160,000 have been displaced since January as the FDLR takes its revenge on the villages where (they allege) people collaborated with the Rwando-Congolese joint operation.   It makes your head spin.

This new fighting is taking place in very remote regions - I spent days on the back of a motorbike to get there - and what I found was just as devastating as anything I’ve seen in my previous five years of reporting in Congo: Massacres, executions by gun and machete, kidnappings, sex slaves, torture victims.

So while the conflict in some parts of eastern Congo is settling down, there are other corners where the war rages on. This seemingly-endless string of local battles is often what makes people give up on the region - new place names to learn, new rebel groups to figure out.

But don’t give up just yet.

The new collaboration between Rwanda and Congo is the most important development in the conflict in years, and one of the main reasons the countries are now working together is because of pressure from the international community that intensified after last fall’s humanitarian disaster.  Sustaining that pressure is the only way to make sure this conflict truly turns a corner towards peace, so that good, hardworking people like Pascal and Vestine can finally return home.

- Michael J. Kavanagh

The International Criminal Court began its first trial in The Hague.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in 2002 to prosecute serious war crimes and is now holding its first trial.

Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga is accused of “enlisting children under the age of 15″ to fight in the Congolese civil war. He has has pled not guilty. 

Read more of our coverage of the crisis in Congo. 

Blogger “Jonathan Fryer” calls the trial “historic,” hoping it puts pressure on world leaders like President Barack Obama to join the ICC, which was shunned by the Bush administration. 

The “Static and Me” blog calls the trial “momentous,” since Lubanga would not have been prosecuted in Congo. 

Blogger “Dennis Doyle” explains why the trial was delayed, writing that the decision to stay the trial reflects the court’s integrity. 

“The Essayist” blog writes that while Lubanga’s trial offers some hope for justice, other war criminals will no doubt replace him. 

Blogger “Matthew Tostevin” notes that all of the ICC’s arrest warrants have been for Africans, wondering if the court is targeting the continent disproportionately. 

The “Things Seen and Heard” blog explores the same question, concluding that in many cases it was the African governments that requested the ICC’s help.

Below, watch a video from The Hub featuring Bukeni Tete Waruzi, a native of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and his response to the trial:

For more on U.S. opposition to the ICC, see PBS Wide Angle’s interview with Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper of the Office of War Crimes Issues.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Michplay under a Creative Commons license.

Laurent Nkunda. Photo: Michael Kavanagh

Rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda, who had campaigned against the Congolese government, has been arrested in Rwanda, a country that had been accused of supporting him.

Nkunda was caught as he tried to repel a joint force of Congolese and Rwandan soldiers.

Rob Crilly is a freelance journalist based in Nairobi who has written for The Times, The Irish Times, The Daily Mail, The Scotsman and The Christian Science Monitor. Crilly’s blog “African Safari” appears on the blog network “From the Frontline,” where he discusses why Nkunda has lost the support of Rwanda’s leaders.

Rwanda Finally Ditches Nkunda

So General Laurent Nkunda has been arrested in Rwanda. About time too. His thuggish rebellion scattered 250,000 people in the last months of 2008 as he flexed his muscles and played games with the lives of the families he claimed to represent. There are still questions to be answered - will Rwanda hand over to the DRC where he is a wanted man - but this, for what it’s worth, is my take on the affair…

Either General Laurent Nkunda has spent four years protecting his Tutsi tribemates from Hutu genocidaires or he is a Rwandan-backed troublemaker, intent on destabilising the Democratic of Congo depending on who you talk to.

Today it seems time has run out for the rebel leader.

It may be that he has fallen out with too many of his senior lieutenants or that his arrest was the price Rwanda was willing to pay in order to send troops over the border to clear out Hutu militias hiding in Congolese forests.

Either way the man known as the Butcher of Kisangani appears to have lost support in key places. “Nkunda didn’t realise that he had lost political capital with a series of foolish moves,” said a UN source in the regional capital of Goma. “He thought he was indispensable and that he could do whatever he pleased.”

The forests of eastern Congo are the refuge of FDLR guerrillas, Hutu militias who fled Rwanda after the genocide. Kigali has long accused the DRC of not doing enough to clear the forests of Hutu gunmen. As a result few doubt that Rwanda was offering assistance to Nkunda to do the job instead.

A United Nations report last year cited evidence that Nkunda’s rebels were receiving cash and recruits from Rwanda, and that senior commanders had a direct line to officials in the Rwandan capital Kigali. But his leadership had been under threat ever since a breakaway faction of his National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) declared a ceasefire earlier this week.

At times his comrades have been irritated by his erratic, narcissistic style promising one thing in media interviews, before contradicting himself days later.

Last year his rebels sparked a major humanitarian crisis as they moved on the city of Goma. A quarter of a million people were forced from their homes.

In the end Rwanda probably decided it no longer needed Nkunda’s bloody help.

To read more, see the original post.

See more of our coverage of the crisis in Congo.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Congolese civilians have endured fighting for more than a decade. Photo: Michael Kavanagh

The Congolese government has allowed at least 2,000 Rwandan troops into the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a joint effort to hunt down Hutu rebels, though the two countries have a history of tense relations. The increased military presence has led to fears of more violence.

The Congolese government says its invitation to the enemy extends only to “observation,” and that the Rwandan forces will not actually be fighting rebel members of the Forces Démocratique pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), who played a role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Read more about Congo’s relationship with Rwanda and the rebels involved in our Q&A: History, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo.

Emmanuel de Merode, the chief warden at Virunga National Park in Congo, writes that Rwandan soldiers are “hanging out” with the Congolese army like “best buddies.”

The “Hearts of Diamonds” blog writes that Congo’s invitation to Rwanda represents a bizarre reversal of position, one that may negatively impact civilians.

The “Wronging Rights” blog writes that although past Rwandan involvement in Congo has proved damaging, Rwanda’s honesty about their troop presence in DR Congo is a step in the right direction.

The “Friends of the Congo” blog disagrees and writes that militarization is not the answer.

The “Colored Opinions” blog also criticizes the Rwandan military presence, and discusses the U.S. role in the region.

Blogger “Patrick Lynch” in Congo writes about reports that soldiers are entering homes looking for Tutsis and questioning any that are found.

See more of our coverage of the crisis in Congo.

A hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

An outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has put neighboring countries on alert.

At least 12 have died so far in the country’s fourth Ebola outbreak since 1976. The highly infectious disease, for which there is no known cure, kills approximately 80 percent of those infected.

Angola has closed parts of its border with the Congo in an effort to prevent the spread of the disease, and Ugandan immigration officials have been asked to closely monitor people crossing the border.

Uganda experienced an outbreak of Ebola last year. During that period, bloggers and doctors Scott and Jennifer Myhre in Bundibugyo wrote about losing a friend, Dr. Jonah Kule, to Ebola, and about hospital protocol with possibly-infected patients.

The “Ebola in DRC” blog, written by members of Doctors Without Borders, provided a firsthand account of an Ebola outbreak in Congo last year, including efforts to disinfect villages and contain the disease by contacting families of victims.

Blogger “Woody,” a humanitarian worker in Congo, discusses the current outbreak, writing that even more Congolese die as a result of extreme poverty and lack of basic healthcare.

American blogger “Thomas” writes that the outbreak would not have occurred had the international community acted to end the conflict in Congo long ago.

Blogger “Greg Laden” writes about recent scientific discoveries that he hopes could lead to the development of a treatment for Ebola.

View an interactive map of disease hotspots in DR Congo and elsewhere in Africa here.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user cyclopsr under a Creative Commons license.

Congolese President Joseph Kabila made an announcement promising to remove armed groups from the country.

Joseph Donnelly of Caritas Internationalis, the Catholic aid group that reported the massacre, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the latest violence and Congo’s future. 

Guards at a displaced persons’ camp in Kitgum try to protect its residents from LRA attacks.

This week, Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo mounted a joint offensive against Uganda’s anti-government rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), in northeastern Congo. The LRA’s leader, Joseph Kony, is hiding in a Congolese jungle after fleeing Uganda.

Twenty-two years of fighting between the LRA and the Ugandan government have killed thousands and displaced millions. In recent months, the rebels have attacked Congolese civilians and abducted hundreds of people.

Glenna Gordon is a writer and photojournalist based in Kampala, Uganda. She writes at World Politics Review that regional cooperation far beyond this week’s offensive is needed to resolve the situation lest LRA violence further destabilize other countries.

LRA: Everyone’s Problem, No One’s Responsibility

Rumors abound about Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a group that has terrorized northern Uganda for the past 20 years and now is thought to be active in Congo, Sudan and Chad. [...]

One reason so many rumors persist is to fill the void left by a paucity of verifiable information. Another reason is to fill the void left by the paucity of the LRA’s agenda.

While few rebel groups have what would be considered a sound ideology, the LRA has a particularly dubious set of beliefs. Among other things, they believe they are protecting the Acholi people of northern Uganda from a government run by southerners. Yet the LRA’s actions are a big reason nearly 2 million Acholis have lived in internally displaced persons camps for decades. 

The Ugandan government has contributed to the problem as well. Unable — or perhaps unwilling — to defeat the LRA militarily, it called on the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant for Kony’s arrest. A ceasefire was subsequently announced, and Kony agreed to sign the preliminary framework for a peace treaty. 

But on the dozen occasions when he has been set to sign the final deal, Kony has balked, arguing that he wants the ICC warrant removed before he’ll consider coming out of the bush. [...]

The people of northern Uganda are clearly still suffering, living in claustrophobic IDP camps with few opportunities for education or even self-sufficiency. But on the other hand, the LRA has not attacked a village in Uganda since 2005. 

Instead, they’ve been active in Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Central African Republic. Where once there were horrible tales in Uganda of children kidnapped and forced to kill their family members, of innocent villagers mutilated, and of entire swathes of countryside destroyed, those stories are now surfacing in other countries.

By letting this conflict go on for so long, Museveni, the ICC and every player in the Uganda peace negotiations have contributed to allowing Kony to operate as before — so long as he doesn’t do it in Uganda.

Kony was Uganda’s problem. Now, he’s become Central Africa’s problem. Of course, everyone’s problem risks becoming no one’s responsibility.

To read more, see the original post. 

For more on the LRA’s actions and its use of child soldiers, see Wide Angle’s “Lord’s Children.”

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user John & Mel Kots under a Creative Commons license.

The United Nations estimates that 200,000 women and girls have been raped in that time, some victims as young as three years old.

Both the Congolese army and rebel groups have used rape as a weapon of war.

Armed groups use rape to tear apart families, spread disease and weaken communities. Women are often victimized doubly — first by their rapists and secondly by spouses or family members who then find it dishonorable or socially unacceptable to associate with them.

Worldfocus special correspondent Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and video journalist Taylor Krauss recently reported from eastern Congo. Together with Lisa Biagiotti and Bijan Rezvani, they produced this signature story.

See their previous signature story: War in DR Congo: The story of Pascal and Vestine.

Watch a companion Web-exclusive video: Rehabilitating rape victims and families in Congo.

Michael Kavanagh and Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge, along with other experts, held an online radio show on roots of the conflict and prospects for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

For more on the conflict, read our Q&A: History, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo or read Human Rights Watch’s background and timeline of the conflict.

Many journalists and activists have produced harrowing accounts of the epidemic of sexual violence in Congo. But as intense violence destabilizes North Kivu once again, we thought it was important to reiterate that the pervasiveness of rape is directly linked to the war.

Cases of sexual violence skyrocket during and after battles and along frontlines. Armed groups are deeply aware of the stigma surrounding rape and they exploit it in order to destroy families and bring women — and men — to their knees. The key to finding ways to “Stop Rape” in Congo is not just to increase awareness of rape, but also to increase our understanding of the causes of the war and work to end it.

Which brings us to the men. Men commit most of the violence in Congo, and most of the rapes. But many men are also victims, too — often directly through rape and torture, but also indirectly through what their wives and daughters and mothers experience.

Because they are both perpetrators and victims, more and more women’s organizations work with men, too, to educate and counsel them.

In fact, Georgina and André met with counselors from an extraordinary organization called SOPROP (Solidarite Pour la Promotion Sociale et la Paix) that helps victims of torture and their families. SOPROP offered couple’s counseling to Georgina and André, and though in this case they still separated, SOPROP’s efforts have encouraged hundreds of other families to stay together, empowering the husbands to care for the women in their lives without turning their backs.

Lisa Biagiotti and Bijan Rezvani of Worldfocus.org helped us produce this short interview with SOPROP’s Lydie Suatula to highlight the work SOPROP does in Congo.

Many groups do wonderful work with women who’ve been raped — SOPROP and Synergie des Femmes from this piece are two examples.

You can also support Eve Ensler’s grassroots movement of women — the V-day campaign — as well as Heal Africa. Human Rights Watch and the ENOUGH project also do invaluable research and advocacy on behalf of women and all victims of torture in Congo and elsewhere in the world.

- Michael J. Kavanagh and Taylor Krauss

The Democratic Republic of Congo has endured conflict for more than a decade in what has been called the deadliest war since World War II. More than 5 million people have died and the country is also the site of the largest and most expensive peacekeeping mission in United Nations history.

In the last year alone, more than a million people have fled the fighting in eastern Congo. For more on the conflict, read our Q&A: History, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosts a panel featuring a range of voices and perspectives on eastern Congo:

Séverine Autesserre is an assistant professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University. She researches civil wars, peace building and peace keeping, humanitarian aid and African politics. Her upcoming book is called Failing the Congo: International intervention and local violence. Before entering academia, Séverine worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo for humanitarian and development agencies.

Nancee Oku Bright currently heads up the United Nations’ Great Lakes team of the department of peacekeeping operations, which covers MONUC and Burundi. She served in MONUC and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as chief of the Africa section, as well as chief of the advocacy and public information. A Liberian, she is also the director of the documentary film “Liberia: America’s Stepchild,” which aired on PBS in 2002.

Michael J. Kavanagh is a journalist with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting who reports about post-conflict development across Africa. He has been reporting on Congo for five years and his work has been regularly featured on Worldfocus.

- See Michael’s reports:     War in DR Congo: The story of Pascal and Vestine
Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo
- See Michael’s Q&A: History, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo.
- See Michael’s blog post about covering Congo: Giving a human face to Congo’s conflict.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Katie Combs and Stephen Puschel

The Democratic Republic of Congo has endured conflict for more than a decade in what has been called the deadliest war since World War II. More than 5 million people have died and the country is also the site of the largest and most expensive peacekeeping mission in United Nations history.

In the last year alone, more than a million people have fled the fighting in eastern Congo. For more on the conflict, read our Q&A: History, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosts a panel featuring a range of voices and perspectives on eastern Congo:

Séverine Autesserre is an assistant professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University. She researches civil wars, peace building and peace keeping, humanitarian aid and African politics. Her upcoming book is called Failing the Congo: International intervention and local violence. Before entering academia, Séverine worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo for humanitarian and development agencies.

Nancee Oku Bright currently heads up the United Nations’ Great Lakes team of the department of peacekeeping operations, which covers MONUC and Burundi. She served in MONUC and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as chief of the Africa section, as well as chief of the advocacy and public information. A Liberian, she is also the director of the documentary film “Liberia: America’s Stepchild,” which aired on PBS in 2002.

Michael J. Kavanagh is a journalist with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting who reports about post-conflict development across Africa. He has been reporting on Congo for five years and his work has been regularly featured on Worldfocus.

- See Michael’s reports: War in DR Congo: The story of Pascal and Vestine
Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo
- See Michael’s Q&A: History, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo.
- See Michael’s blog post about covering Congo: Giving a human face to Congo’s conflict.

In the last year alone, more than a million people have fled the fighting in eastern Congo.

In spite of a peace accord in 2003, fighting continues and many fear that foreign countries are still involved. Recently, there have been more signs of Rwandan involvement and encouragement of rebels.

The 17,000 United Nations peacekeepers in Congo cannot ease the growing number of casualties as a rebel group threatens to overthrow the Congolese government.

Worldfocus correspondent Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and video journalist Taylor Krauss recently visited the refugee camps in eastern Congo. Together with Lisa Biagiotti, they produced this video on one family’s story.

Note: In the weeks since this story was filmed, the camp has been attacked and Pascal was forced to flee a third time. The camp is now deserted except for a small rebel force, and Worldfocus reporters have not been able to locate Pascal and his family.

Read reporter Michael Kavanagh’s blog post about his experience reporting with video journalist Taylor Krauss in Congo here: Giving a human face to Congo’s conflict.

Taylor Krauss recounts their detention by Congo’s secret police here: Detained by Congo’s secret police.

Taylor Krauss shoots footage in eastern Congo. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

Taylor Krauss is a producer, video journalist and the founder of Voices of Rwanda. He traveled to Congo with reporter Michael kavanagh to capture footage for the Worldfocus report on the Congo: The story of Pascal and Vestine. Here, he writes about their harrowing detention by Congo’s notorious secret police.

Read Michael Kavanagh’s account of their experience here.

I wasn’t surprised when the secret police stopped me and Michael Kavanagh as we headed out to film in Rutshuru [a town in North Kivu] in October. After all, it wasn’t the first time I had been taken in by Congolese police for “carrying a camera,” and “not having my paperwork in order.”

I knew a padded handshake could solve things in a country where [former president] Mobutu used to tell his citizens to “fend for themselves.” But I also knew that when working with NGOs in Congo, you follow their lead — because without them, you’ve got nothing. On that morning, the International Rescue Committee refused to allow us to bribe the officers, and the officers were furious.

First, they demanded my camera. When it became clear to them that they’d first need to buy a saw to cut off my arm in order to get my camera, they decided to settle for my passport. I never let that out of my grip, either, so they decided they would settle for my tapes.

When I refused, they told us to follow them in the car to headquarters. I was already frustrated we had missed our dawn shots at the IDP [internally displaced persons] camp and had hoped we wouldn’t lose any more time, but knew we potentially had a lot more to lose.

After several grueling hours of questioning, the head of security still wasn’t satisfied. The underlings told him we’d filmed critical military targets and that we were in fact spies from Rwanda.

Of course, they demanded to review my tapes. Not wanting to spend a night in a Congolese jail on the eve of the outbreak of war, I’d already cued up my b-roll [supplemental footage] tape of a sunrise and children playing. They scratched their chins as they watched my recordings of children dancing in front of my camera, but I think they were actually enjoying it.

Ultimately, they decided to take all the tapes. Michael was devastated.

Later that day, I crossed over the border into Rwanda and called Michael. On the way to headquarters, I had hidden the “money” tape — with footage of the United Nations jungle patrols — deep in my bag’s “secret pocket,” and I had just reviewed it.

“Fend for yourself,” the Congolese creed, had come in handy.  We were lucky. Since that time, reporting has become even more difficult and dangerous.

Sorry - there are no sunrises.

- Taylor Krauss

Displaced children in eastern Congo. Photo: Michael J. Kavanagh

Michael J. Kavanagh is a journalist with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. He recently reported on the crisis in eastern Congo for Worldfocus: The story of Pascal and Vestine. Here, he writes about his experience covering the conflict.

The conflict in Congo is too complicated to explain in a five-minute video, so we’ve left most of the context out in order to focus on Pascal’s story.  For more background on the recent fighting, check out my Q&A on history, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo.

I’ve been reporting on DRC for five years now, and there’s nothing that frustrates me more than the dismissive comments I often get about how conflict in Africa is endemic.

Violence is rarely irrational — it almost always has root causes that can be addressed. We’re often just too busy or lazy to learn enough about a situation to figure out how.

Given the extent of the outside world’s involvement in Congo over the last century, I am of the school that says we owe it to Pascal, Vestine, their two children and the millions who are suffering in Congo to try.

As Taylor Krauss and I filmed in these camps, people were saying they hadn’t eaten in days and they hadn’t received food aid from humanitarian groups in months.

And then there’s the violence. It sometimes seems that every other woman you interview is a victim of sexual violence (we’ll air a piece about this in the coming weeks); an equal number of men have been tortured, killed, or forced to fight in armed groups.

These conditions make reporting in eastern Congo extremely difficult — read Taylor’s account of our detention by Congo’s notorious secret police.

We couldn’t have done our work without the help of many brave and generous Congolese citizens, United Nations staff and humanitarian workers. The International Rescue Committee — in particular, Danielle de Knocke van der Meulen, Lia Pozzi, Fidel Bafilemba and Elinor Raikes — were hospitable and patient with the sometimes burdensome requirements of television.

IRC is one of the few aid groups that consistently sends aid workers into the most dangerous places in the world, even when the danger is most acute. They save hundreds of lives every day.

We also need to thank the people at Virunga National Park who gave us the footage of the fighting in Rumangabo. Virunga is home to an extraordinary array of wildlife — from gorillas to gazelles to hippos. It’s also one of the main centers of war.

The Virunga rangers are the bulwark keeping armed groups from completely overrunning the park; over 100 rangers have been innocent casualties of the fighting over the years.

When the war ends and Virunga is again a naturalist’s paradise (it seems crazy even to write about that possibility at the moment), we’ll have the rangers to thank for preserving it.

- Michael J. Kavanagh