Tracking - Can the Congo Ceasefire Hold? | War and Peace

Tracking - Can the Congo Ceasefire Hold?

Published November 06, 2008 @ 11:11PM PT

[Situation in the camps around Goma, as well as in Ituri - Footage from UNICEF]

At the risk of being redundant - or stating the obvious - not a pleasant day in the eastern Congo:

- First, as always, the good news - the ceasefire around Goma continues to hold.

- Now, the not-so-good news. On Thursday rebel forces under Laurent Nkunda attacked the Congolese Army north of Goma, capturing the towns of Nyanzale and Kikuku.

According to a UN spokesman: "They have taken Nyanzale and Kikuku, therefore breaking their own declared ceasefire. Now it's clear they are trying to have a territory completely under their control."

The UN reported that thousands of civilians fled the fighting.

- There are also reports that the rebels massacred at least a dozen people in Kiwanja, though the number of casulaties might be higher. The massacre follows a battle on Wednesday between the rebels and a pro-Government militia in the area.

More information below:

Reuters spoke to one local resident, who said his wife and child were killed during the massacre in Kiwanja: "They knocked on the doors, when the people opened, they killed them with their guns."

- According to the most recent OCHA Humanitarian Situation Update (November 6th), a total of 252,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since September.

Food distributions are currently ongoing at the following camps: Buhimba (10,836 people), Bulengo (16,467), Kibati (65,900), Mugunga I (12,269), Mugunga II (10,550), and Nzulo (5,000).

- Finally, it's not as though Nkunda's forces are the only problem. Further north, battles between the Lord's Resistance Army - a Ugandan rebel movement - and the Congolese Army in Ituri Province have caused an estimated 67,000 people to flee their homes since September.

This includes 17,000 who fled during fighting in September, as well as at least 50,000 who fled fighting near the town of Dungu in early November.

Some aid agencies have also had to evacuate the area.

For a detailed map of the eastern Congo, showing flash-points around Goma and in Ituri, see here.

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Comments (1)

Hello,

I came across your blog in a broad E-search of Congo watchers. It's a great site- I look forward to reading more of your postings. I am active as a journalist and AIDS/HIV activist who's worked in Rwanda for past years, and now actively engaged in DRC and networking with Sudan, etc. I live in SF and am happy to discover an other W Coaster.

Please see release below, and if you could help inform the community you engage with who are DRC or intl aid /relief workers, this would be helpful. We welcome your postings. Have a look today. The site just went live and has bugs. but is already providing direct cell phone reports from in and outside Goma from the Heal Africa team and others.

Cheers, Anne-christine d'Adesky
415-690-6199 mobile in SF

ANNOUNCEMENT Nov 4, 2008 -

IMPT: USHAHIDI DRC Monitoring Site Launches for mobile /web live monitoring of E Congo war & aid response. Distribute Widely!

Dear colleagues,

As many of you know, I've been a fan of the Ushahidi human rights reporting website that was launched early in 2008 to monitor electoral violence in Kenya. This past week, I've had the pleasure of working with their team (Ory Okolloh, Eric Herdon) and the staff of Heal Africa in Goma to create an Ushahidi portal to monitor the current violence in Eastern Congo. This Interactive platform allows for direct reporting via cellphone from and within DRC and the US to the web as well as via computer and will have audio, video components, and has a GPS tracking tool so you can map the violence. We also wanted to map the RESPONSE and linkage of humanitarians and civil society groups there and outside N Kivu. This new tool will allow advocates and citizens there to directly tell us via cell phones or computers what they are witnessing. T

The site has just gone live today.

In anticipation of the question of security - and protecting the identify of people reporting - this is done by passing email or cell phone messages to to project team in Goma that will upload and vet messages.

Local reports in DRC can be made by calling a mobile phone. In Goma: 099 87 53 664; from the US: 243 99 87 53 664 . .

The website URL is:
http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2008/11/07/ushahidi-deploys-to-the-congo-drc/
Please spread the word and help us make it a valuable resource for Congo monitoring and bringing forth the experience and stories of Congolose colleagues and citizens in N Kivu who are under fire as fighting continues there. We want to make sure the media is informed, so please share with your media colleagues too.

The Usshahidi DRC site will be in French and English.

We encourage us to use the tool and share it widely. You can post reports easily, and soon there will be media archives and blogs and email updates that are specific to the conflict in Eastern Congo. The focus is limited to North Kivu for now, but internal discussions are underway to look at S Kivu and Kinshasa as this project expands.

A simple 'how to' and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) guide will be available soon and for circulation to colleagues who may not have used a cell phone to report by SMS or receive alerts.

Thank you. Let's make this tool work to help our Congolese colleagues and the many aid and other groups who are trying to help them in the midst of fighting.
Anne-christine d'Adesky
Producer & Host
Talk to the Future
talktothefuture@gmail.com
(415) 648-1728
(415) 690- 6199'Talk to the Future:
A Public Conversation with Today's Boldest Voices'

Posted by Anne-christ... d'Adesky on 11/08/2008 @ 10:14AM PT
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Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.