Congo Stories by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2018-12-03T16:00:00+00:00

For more information about Fidel’s efforts to create the first public library in eastern Congo, please go to: www.congolibrary.org

CHAPTER EIGHT

Life Today in One Part of Congo

Goma’s Story by Fidel, a Resident for Life

Goma, an enclave in the foothills of the Nyiragongo volcano, sits on the shores of Lake Kivu, whose waters shimmer with methane gas. The city was a center of trade for centuries—a polyglot crossroads for buyers and sellers of fish, food, and, most recently, weapons and minerals. Crawling with about 1.5 million people, Goma lives in the shadows of the world’s largest UN peacekeeping mission. With artillery, armored tanks, drones, and gunships buzzing all over the city every day, the imposing presence of the UN force is a spectacle that amazes Goma residents and leads us to dream of a fantasy peace.

Surrounding Goma in eastern Congo are over seventy armed groups and hundreds of racketeering roadblocks everywhere. The Congolese army—along with other security bodies such as the regular police, the road safety and traffic police, the intelligence agency, and the migration department—man the majority of those illegal roadblocks. In such an environment, succeeding in moving around without being stopped is often a cause for celebration.

Conflict simmers on, erupting everywhere inside and all around the nearby Virunga National Park, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to run for their lives, which ends up expanding Goma’s population with these internal refugees. Home-grown rebel groups and others from nearby countries make the lawless forests around Goma their home, while neighbors like Rwanda and Uganda have repeatedly backed Congolese rebellions to promote their own business and security interests. Dozens of local Congolese self-defense groups known as Mai-Mai spring up to fight these rebels but often end up preying on their own communities. Crippled by insecurity and instability, eastern Congo remains one of the least developed regions in the world, with a per capita gross domestic product of only a few hundred dollars per year.

Goma is also home to about 250 international aid agencies, some of which have been around for over twenty years. Goma and war-ravaged areas around it have been a top priority for humanitarian interventions. Hundreds of millions of dollars flow in every year to address the needs of internally displaced persons, fight cholera outbreaks, counter severe malnutrition, support rape survivors, etc. But in a country where successive presidents steal most of the state assets for personal enrichment, these aid agencies can only have a limited impact.

The two active volcanoes around Goma—Nyamulagira and Nyiragongo—tower ten miles north of the city. While the former throws up its lava inside the Virunga park, Nyiragongo sends smoke and steam over the city almost every day, and its looming eruption—occurring every decade or two—warns the city of its impermanence.

Goma, it seems, is used to extremes. Bustling with construction work, our city is living on the edge. Goma faces multiple threats: the two active volcanoes, a potential gas explosion under Lake Kivu, ethnic conflicts, and political tensions. And with a president clinging to power at all costs, future uncertainty is even higher.

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