ACT News Update

Needs continue after conflict in border town of Bukavu

Geneva, June 15, 2004--Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is still reeling from the fighting that cut the town off from the rest of the country earlier this month. The border between Bukavu and its closest neighboring town, Cyangugu in Rwanda, remains closed. The towns, both on the southern part of Lake Kivu, are separated by a bridge.

Apart from incidents of looting, Bukavu has been relatively calm over the last week. Fighting however continues in the surrounding areas, according to the members of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, which are based and working in Bukavu.

"Life is slowly returning to normal (in the town itself)," says Lutheran World Federation's Emile Mpanya, who is working with other ACT members Eglise du Christ au Congo (ECC) and Christian Aid to arrange food distribution today at the local Panzi Hospital.

"But people do not have limitless access to food," says Mpanya, explaining that the fighting in the outlying areas are cutting off the traditional food supply routes. "If this fighting continues and food cannot reach the town, what will happen is a suffocation in the long run," he says. "There is also insecurity on the roads because of the renegade soldiers – towards Burundi, towards Goma."

At least 400 patients are still at Panzi Hospital, which is run by the Pentecostal Church, a member of ECC. Several hundred more outpatients are adding to the strain being felt by the hospital. "And many more people are arriving," reports Mpanya. However, Kadutu Health Clinic, which is in the center of town, in one of the most densely populated parts of Bukavu, now has only 20 patients. "People could not pay for medical expenses and had no food, so they left," he says.

Thomas van Kampen, also of LWF and based in Rwanda, says the LWF office has received reports of more people making their way across the closed border to Cyangugu. Several thousand people have been seeking refuge in this Rwandan town since the fighting broke out two weeks ago.

Christian Aid's Marian Matshikiza writes that on June 12 heavy fighting had been reported on the Ruzizi Plain, some 50 km south of Bukavu, midway between the towns of Kamanyola and Uvira. "As a result of the fighting, Banyamulenge families have left en masse for Burundi, fearing reprisals by the rest of the population that could result from the rebellion," she reports. She adds, however, that "other population groups are equally affected by the fighting and are also leaving the area. There are [also] reports that houses abandoned by fleeing Banyamulenge families are being looted and destroyed."

The Banyamulenge is a minority ethnic group considered by many to be Rwandan.

Kalehe, a lakeside village north of Bukavu, has also seen fighting.

Concern has been expressed that the recent outbreak of hostilities in the region is being portrayed solely as an ethnic conflict. Matshikiza writes, "A Christian Aid partner with whom we were able to meet in Cyangugu denounces the issue as a 'false problem', pointing out that 90 percent of Banyamulenge families were saved or protected by neighbors, members of other ethnic groups. Expressing the view of many of the Banyamulenge community (of which he is a member), the partner hoped that the families could soon return to Bukavu as their displacement might well be exploited for political ends by radical elements in both Rwanda and in the DRC."

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