“We Sleep On Stones”
Open this story in Google Earth
Click here to see Mugunga from above in Google Earth. Note the absence of any plastic sheeting. November 2007, image courtesy Masako Yonekawa/UNHCR.
The sound of exploding shells mixes with afternoon thunder; only those who live or work here can tell the difference. Yesterday government soldiers took back the town of Mushake [and will lose it again the following week] a few miles up the road, and are pounding Nkunda’s northern positions with attack helicopters and mortars.
Today Jerry and I have come to Mugunga camp to see for ourselves how the people displaced by the conflict are surviving. On top of a field of sharp volcanic rock is a small city of thousands of tiny huts made of banana leaves; they were made small so they would fit under the standard sized orange plastic tarp given to each family when they arrived sometime over the past year.
But last month (November) after a battle nearby, the displaced fled and the Congolese army (in which a soldier, when paid at all, receives $10 a month) looted the camp, stripping the residents of their food and every last piece of plastic sheeting. To top it off, they haven’t received a food distribution in two months. Jeanette, a 24 year old woman from Masisi district, is soaked every time it rains, along with her family and handful of possessions. She is hungry and beyond furious.
Yesterday the camp residents held a UN worker hostage for the day, blaming them for the lack of supplies. The humanitarian aid organizations are underfunded, not fully prepared for the latest round of fighting and wary of handing over new sheeting- they are worried, for good reason, that the tarps will just be looted again in a month or two.
But if later the afternoon thunder clouds bring rain, as they do nearly every night during the wet season, Jeanette and her family will lie awake with a puddle in place of their cardboard bed. Across the camp thousands will suffer the night quietly, and wake together to a morning of uncertainty.
God please be with my brothers and sisters.
Belived in “GOD ALMIGHTY” and everything would work out. Dont worry
It is quite a shame that there are no comments against this tyranny
I am angry that my country’s media is so tied to Hollywood and the latest Botox scandal that much evil in the world is hidden to us. Some of us stumble across it’s presence and are shocked. In the fight against such evil the biggest problem for the western man or woman in the street doing a nine to five is that they feel thier one voice is no match against the power and compromise of huge organisations and governments and feel that they could not possibly be heard.
Thank you for this article, I can at least share it with my friends and family
everything we do to help poverty in situations like these are not enough. its up to the african government to sort this out.all we can do is help as much as we can by aid orginisations and charities. it sickens me how people can live in such poor conditions. god be with you
Saw this on google maps to bad you can not see this on your local news channel.somehow the word must get out. god help these people.
A time for change has come! I wish the people over there could see what I’m writing because I and other people are thinking of ways to help others in Countries where the Govt. can’t get to based on politics. People do care and will help bring peace to all over the world despite what A***** Dictator try to do/say. It’s never too late and Google earth can help truly show what its like in other areas of the world; that were once closed off to normal viewing.
The governments can and do sometimes intervene, but too often it is because the political climate gets too hot for them to ignore getting involved anymore, or there will be some sort of monetary gain for getting involved. i know my view seems very synical to some of you, but it is the harsh reality of our governments. Politics is their bottom line.
We on the other hand can continue to get involved as our brothers keepers, and as long as we the masses are here, and protesting, sacrificing,speaking out, there is Hope.
