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UNHCR News Story: Congolese victims of LRA attacks despair of ever returning home

A woman and her son pound food for their dinner at a site near Dungu. They fled Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) attacks.
UNHCR / M. Hofer / March 2012

Congolese victims of LRA attacks despair of ever returning home

DUNGU, Democratic Republic of the Congo, May 9 (UNHCR) – Jules* lies in a hospital bed in a provincial town in north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo. Recovering from gunshot wounds to the leg and shoulder, he's a recent victim of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Orientale province.

But at least he's alive and free. The LRA fighters have built up a reputation over the past two decades for random violence, including murder and rape, and for abducting people from the villages that they terrorize. In recent years they have fled their home bases in Uganda and moved to neighbouring countries, including the Congo and Central African Republic.

In Jules's case, the LRA fighters came to his village with the dawn. "They arrived [in early April] at 5am and started shooting. I tried to run out of the house, but one of the LRA rebels entered and, without saying a word, he opened fire," the 55-year-old farmer said.

The next thing he remembered was being in a UN peacekeeping base before being medevaced on a Médecins Sans Frontières plane to the town of Dungu, about seven kilometres to the south. He's been told he will have to spend several weeks recovering.

But, like many other recent victims of LRA attacks in this corner of the country, he despairs of ever being able to return home. Marie,* aged 36, had to flee her village at midnight. "I don't want to return. If the rebels come again, I will be forced to leave again," said the mother of five, whose village had also been attacked in 2009. The LRA looted and torched homes and abducted one man.

The renewed attacks by the LRA in Orientale province since the beginning of this year have targeted dozens of villages and displaced more than 2,500 people, most of whom have fled to Dungu or nearby sites for internally displaced people (IDP), where they receive help from UNHCR and its partners. At least three people have been killed and 51 abducted, including 16 children.

Attacks on Bagalupa village, related by 30-year-old Clementine,* followed a typical pattern. "We were sleeping when they arrived for the first attack. They entered from both sides of the village and started looting houses. People started crying and ran away," she said, adding that the villagers had spent a week in the bush.

But just a few days after their return, the LRA attacked again, this time at sunset. "They started shooting to scare the army. Everyone in the village fled. We spent four days on the road to Dungu. We were walking during the day and sleeping at night in the bush."

Clementine now lives with a host family in Dungu. "I don't want to go back," she said, echoing the concerns voiced by Jules and Marie and many of her fellow villagers. "I can't go back to my village," said Marcel, the Bagalupa village chief. "When I went there to check the situation, I came across LRA rebels on the road," he said, adding that they let him go.

He said he would prefer to stay in Dungu and had asked the local authorities to give him a piece of land. Most of the newly displaced civilians in Dungu are living with host families. They rely on locals for humanitarian assistance. Some work in the fields for pay and others look for firewood to sell at market, but this is dangerous as they have to venture into the forest.

"I welcomed these families into my house out of compassion. They are my brothers," said Barthelemy, who lives with his wife and four children in a single room home. They have taken in 12 displaced people from three families.

While many people remain too scared to return to their villages, some have decided to go back to areas where there is now an army presence, including Bagalupa and Nangwakaza, the village that Marie fled from about a month before she talked to UNHCR.

Simon* returned to Bagalupa, partly because he does not know where else he can stay. "We are scared," he admitted. "At night, we don't sleep in our homes, we sleep outside in the bush. When I am in the fields and I hear a small noise, I drop my hoe and run away."

But long-term security is a concern for many of the displaced, including those who have found shelter in special IDP settlements in and around Dungu. Some of the people in the Bangapili site have been there since 2008, too frightened to return, even though living conditions are tough.

"I am not happy to stay here, I would like to go back to my village [near the border with South Sudan]," said Charlotte,* who has been in Bangapili for the past four years. "But security has not returned," she added.

Many people will only go back once they know that LRA leader Joseph Kony, who is being hunted by troops from the region backed by US special forces advisers, is dead or captured and his organization destroyed. "On that day, we will go out in the streets and sing. We will be so happy," said Angelique.

LRA attacks and threats since 2008 have displaced a staggering 335,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most are still displaced.

* Names changed for protection reasons

By Céline Schmitt in Dungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

UNHCR News Story: LRA victims in Central African Republic dream of Kony's demise

Children attend classes under trees near the town of Zemio. They were forced to flee their villages by the Lord's Resistance Army.
UNHCR / D. Mbaiorem / March 2012

LRA victims in Central African Republic dream of Kony's demise

OBO, Central African Republic, May 3 (UNHCR) -¬ The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been terrorizing south-east Central African Republic for years, forcing thousands to seek refuge in towns like Obo. But since the deployment here last October of US special forces, locals have begun hoping things will change and that LRA leader Joseph Kony will finally be captured.

During a recent visit to Haut-Mbomou prefecture, I travelled hundreds of kilometres with a military escort and was able to see some of the terror and destruction wreaked by the LRA.

Of the 21 villages we visited, 15 were deserted after attacks by the Ugandan rebel group, which also operates in South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The rebels had stolen people's meagre belongings, abducted some villagers and killed others, torched homes and left a general trail of destruction. The survivors had fled to the relative safety of towns.

In the village of Nguili Nguili, 12 kilometres from Obo, the capital of Haut-Mbomou, we passed the charred ruins of dwellings and granaries alongside deserted, tumbledown homes that had been left to the elements. Only the twittering of birds and the rustle of fallen leaves broke the silence. It seemed like we were in a cemetery.

"The LRA are out there," said Jean, a resident of Maboussou village, pointing to the bush. Maboussou has been attacked three times by the rebels, who are referred to locally as the "Tongo Tongo." Most of the villagers have left for the towns of Zemio or Mboki, but a few with large families, like Jean and Marius, decided to stay. "We are in the village during the day and at night we sleep in the bush," explained Marius.

The LRA presence has created desolation in an area that was once dotted with oases of human life. Travelling down the 1,300-kilometre trail that crosses the savannah from Zemio to Obo, we didn't pass a single other vehicle or bicycle. People are simply too scared to travel freely and it was apparent why we needed an escort.

Later, at the Tanango junction, a UNHCR driver, Paul, explained: "This is one of the routes used by the LRA. This track leads to Democratic Republic of the Congo and that one goes to South Sudan."

At the end of March, UNHCR's chief spokesperson, Melissa Fleming, told journalists that the LRA had in January resumed attacks in Central African Republic (CAR) after a nine-month hiatus. The attacks in the south-east had left four people dead and 31 abducted, she said, citing CAR security forces.

But while the security situation remained fragile, one exception was Obo, where the situation had improved since the US troops were sent to bolster efforts by the joint CAR-Ugandan armed forces hunting the LRA.

A day before our journey, I met two young men, Pierre and Raphael, who had recently escaped from the Lord's Resistance Army. The two were abducted during an attack on Obo during the night of March 6, 2008; both spent more than one year with the LRA before they managed to escape during an attack against the Congolese army.

"I ended up in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo] in a group led by one of Joseph Kony's commanders. Over there, they forced me and two other young guys to club to death 15 Congolese soldiers who had been captured," said Pierre, his face bathed in sweat. "I never thought I would be able to do such awful things," he added.

Raphael, a nurse, ended up in the base of Kony himself and said he became the LRA leader's personal medic. "One day I was looking after a very sick woman, who had also been abducted. Kony's fighters came and took me to him and he decided that I would be his personal physician," he recalled.

"I learnt acholi, a Ugandan language, and I often visited other LRA bases to look after the sick. We were attacking villages to stock up on provisions and to abduct more people to grow crops of maize, peanut and sweet potato for us. The women became sex slaves, » Raphael said.

Pierre and Raphael are two of more than 400 people who have escaped or been rescued from LRA captivity in the south-east of Central African Republic since 2009.The others all have harrowing stories.

Today, the people of the south-east have almost become hostages in their own villages. They can't move safely beyond a five-kilometre radius of their homes. Only in and around Obo do people have more freedom of movement. Patrols by the CAR and Ugandan force supported by the US military advisers have enabled local authorities to ensure security within a 25-kilometre radius.

The insecurity means that people cannot conduct their normal lives of farming, hunting, fishing and trade, making them extremely vulnerable. But they all have something in common – the hope that Joseph Kony will be arrested.

By Djerassem Mbaiorem in Obo, Central African Republic

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UNHCR News Story: UNHCR starts cross-river repatriation of refugees in Republic of Congo

The repatriation fleet heads down the Oubangui River to Dongo in Equateur province with 79 refugees on board the boats.
UNHCR / May 2012

UNHCR starts cross-river repatriation of refugees in Republic of Congo

GENEVA, May 7 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency has launched a repatriation programme for tens of thousands of refugees who want to return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from neighbouring Republic of the Congo.

In a low-key start to the operation, a small convoy of boats on Saturday took 79 refugees down the Oubangui River from the town of Betou in Republic of the Congo (ROC) to Dongo in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo's Equateur province. UNHCR and senior officials of the two countries are expected to take part in a formal ceremony later.

A further two convoys carrying almost 620 people are expected to take place today and on Friday, stopping at Dongo, Ikpengbele and Mozombo. UNHCR plans to assist 49,000 refugees return this year from ROC and 32,000 next year. The refugee agency also plans to repatriate Congolese refugees from Central African Republic, but this programme is being developed.

The operation for Republic of Congo will be a major logistical challenge for UNHCR and its partners, with refugees dispersed in remote areas over a wide area.

The refugee returnees on last weekend's convoy were among an estimated 143,000 civilians who fled to neighbouring countries (123,000 to Republic of Congo and 20,000 to Central African Republic) to escape inter-ethnic clashes sparked by fishing and farming disputes in Equateur in late 2009. Those crossing to the Republic of Congo sought shelter in remote settlements on the banks of the Oubangui.

A further 100,000 sought safety in other parts of Equateur, but most went back to their villages as the situation improved. A few thousand have returned from Republic of Congo, but many come over to check their lands on a regular basis.

UNHCR has been helping the returnees, providing shelter kits and constructing more than 200 homes for the vulnerable. It has also been promoting reconciliation between the Enyele and Munzaya communities, who signed a non-aggression pact early last year.

As part of the reconciliation programme, a UNHCR-funded community radio station went on air last October. It can be heard across the river.