General Nkunda's rebels overwhelm Congolese army
Mary Bubar
Issue date: 11/14/08 Section: World
New levels of hostility were reached in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) struggle with renegade General Lawrence Nkunda.
Two hundred fifty thousand Congolese villagers have been driven from their homes since August, fleeing gunfire and bombings that escalated last week.
Dusty village roads packed with fleeing families and all the essentials that they could carry strapped to their backs and perched atop their heads.
"I'm going to Rwanda," said Safi Dayoo to The New York Times as she trudged with her six children to the border to get there by sundown.
The besieged villagers never truly recovered from the 1994 Rwandan genocides and subsequent civil wars. Four million people have died in the Congo since 1998 from malnutrition and disease, the consequences of war.
Almost half are children under five.
Ethnic hatred fuels the conflict. Five hundred thousand Tutsi people were killed in the Rwandan genocides and the indicted Hutu militiamen escaped to the Congo. Nkunda has accused the Congolese government of failing to protect the Tutsi people from the escaped militia.
"Nkunda feels threatened by the Hutu soldiers who ran into DRC after the genocide and he feels he should protect his people from being murdered by the Hutus, which he thinks that the DRC government is supporting," said Kevin Muhanji, a sophomore from Kenya. "What he is doing is actually killing the Hutus in the name of protecting the Tutsi with the support of Paul Kagame of Rwanda."
Nkunda's highly trained army is currently entrenched in the hills outside of the city of Goma, tentatively adhering to his own call for cease-fire. His advance was no match for the overwhelmed national army who left its own path of destruction upon retreat. The rebel army has gained two military bases in as many weeks and has become a force that the government has to deal with.
"Today we are strong because the international community understands that we are a cry for freedom," said Nkunda to NPR. Ironically, Nkunda says he speaks for all Congolese people who have suffered through civil wars, poverty and victims of government neglect.
Two hundred fifty thousand Congolese villagers have been driven from their homes since August, fleeing gunfire and bombings that escalated last week.
Dusty village roads packed with fleeing families and all the essentials that they could carry strapped to their backs and perched atop their heads.
"I'm going to Rwanda," said Safi Dayoo to The New York Times as she trudged with her six children to the border to get there by sundown.
The besieged villagers never truly recovered from the 1994 Rwandan genocides and subsequent civil wars. Four million people have died in the Congo since 1998 from malnutrition and disease, the consequences of war.
Almost half are children under five.
Ethnic hatred fuels the conflict. Five hundred thousand Tutsi people were killed in the Rwandan genocides and the indicted Hutu militiamen escaped to the Congo. Nkunda has accused the Congolese government of failing to protect the Tutsi people from the escaped militia.
"Nkunda feels threatened by the Hutu soldiers who ran into DRC after the genocide and he feels he should protect his people from being murdered by the Hutus, which he thinks that the DRC government is supporting," said Kevin Muhanji, a sophomore from Kenya. "What he is doing is actually killing the Hutus in the name of protecting the Tutsi with the support of Paul Kagame of Rwanda."
Nkunda's highly trained army is currently entrenched in the hills outside of the city of Goma, tentatively adhering to his own call for cease-fire. His advance was no match for the overwhelmed national army who left its own path of destruction upon retreat. The rebel army has gained two military bases in as many weeks and has become a force that the government has to deal with.
"Today we are strong because the international community understands that we are a cry for freedom," said Nkunda to NPR. Ironically, Nkunda says he speaks for all Congolese people who have suffered through civil wars, poverty and victims of government neglect.
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