Mainstory: Eastern DRC: Where FDLR sell charcoal to earn a living

“You are very early going to the market at this time,” says a young man selling a variety of products in a bakery shop near Goma town. On top of the bread, the roadside kiosk also sells a range of other products from Vodacom telephony credit cards, cigarettes to bananas. The customers are mostly the early morning commuters in this busy town. In the middle of Goma town is a sprawling outlay of makeshift wooden stalls, like in any other African food market, the stalls are closely linked to each other that shoppers can hardly find walking space. That however is not the only problem, the market sellers open for daily business after nine o’clock in the morning and because electricity connection in Goma is limited to only a few buildings, the market closes with sunset. The remains of dry lava, which comes from the inactive volcanoes of the Virunga are an ever enduring feature of Goma. The blocks from this lava just in western Rwanda are used to build domestic houses, wall fences and in the construction of roads. Goma is a bustling city of commercial and political action. Almost every turn is a motor cycle stage. The motor cycles transport Goma residents from one centre to another. The city was until only a few years back the seat of the remnants of the Interahamwe, and other elements of Rwanda’s military and political hierarchy before the ugly 1994 Genocide. The combination of these marauding militias stands largely accused of planning and implementing the 1994 Genocide which claimed one million Rwandans. Sometimes, they attack and cause havoc to innocent Rwandans and have been actively involved in all wars in the Great Lakes Region since 1994. Some bandit groups have since broken off from the two and formed smaller rebel groups. This has led to a complex socio-political situation in the entire eastern part of DR Congo and as a result of the presence of the militias; it is highly risky to travel in the area with Rwandan documents. That threat however is not limited to Rwandans, the entire stretch from Goma, Sake to Masisi is occupied by a large military presence of national army of DR Congo. The other side you have rebels. About 17,000 from the crafty UN Peace Keeping force in Eastern Congo known as MONUC also stand not far from here. When the Genocide in Rwanda ended in July 1994, Goma immediately became the centre of proxies that led to the region in Eastern DR Congo, getting into a constant clout of conflict, war, and many horrendous crimes which were classified by the UN as genocide too. A visitor here will always get a sense that the war at least in Eastern Congo is not yet over. As if to remind the residents of that area of the constant possibility of war, on Thursday 28, August, there was renewed fighting between the government national army and a force allied to Gen. Laurent Nkunda. The skirmishes happened thirty miles away, outside Goma town. The new clashes have made the presence of MONUC necessary. However, the MONUC forces especially from India and Pakistan have been regarded with disgust at least by the residents. They have been accused of raping the women in the area and exchanging gold and other gem stones with the rebel groups particularly the FDLR! Furthermore, as if to emphasize the counterproductive nature of events in this town is the fact that along the way from Gisenyi, Rwanda’s western boarder town with DR Congo, you can get along with many people in Kinya-rwanda, the Rwandans in Goma are; “jack of all trades”, as the English adage goes. They sell tomatoes in the market, ride commercial motor cycles in town, and work as tour guides and in many guest houses in this resort town on the DR Congolese side of Lake Kivu. The Rwandans in Eastern Congo contrast sharply with their Congolese counterparts in western Rwanda, many Congolese on the Rwandan side of the boarder are lavish, they eat from influential restaurants like Gisenyi Auberge and frequent Gisenyi’s ultra modern night clubs. The western part of Goma, the uncertainty hangs in the air. Military roadblocks from Goma to Sake are numerous while the main road resembles a territory under siege. There is a large presence of armed Congolese soldiers on both sides yet even with the uniformed and armed army men, security experts in the Great Lakes state that there has been a large commercial enterprise mainly involving charcoal which is extracted from the FDLR controlled jungles in Eastern Congo and transported for sale in Kigali. The charcoal and timber business, residents add spawns the entire Eastern DR Congo region and that the FDLR-(Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) is one of the beneficiaries. The timber and charcoal products come from the jungles of Eastern DR Congo and are controlled by the FDLR, through a myriad cobweb of networks, the charcoal and timber are sold in Goma town and later finds it’s way to Kigali. The next time one buys a sack of charcoal from Kigali, there are many chances that it would have made its way right from FDLR territory in Congo. Sake and Goma In Eastern DRC, these rebels have their own territories. Take an example of Gen. Laurent Nkunda. His group is reportedly expanding this largely undeveloped part of DR Congo and now their network are believed by security experts to be extending as far as the Central African Republic. Rebel groups like the FDLR are reported to have been partly behind the violence that characterized the March presidential elections in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe was at one point also involved in the DR Congo skirmishes. Sake town only a few kilometers is where the action in Eastern DR Congo is intense. It’s at the cross roads of the territory under the DRC government, a short distance away are refugee camps in which FDLR has many of its contacts. MONUC forces hold fort between the FDLR, Nkunda’s and the Congolese forces. Any new visitor to the intricate workings of Sake is subject to deep scrutiny, and it is not clear who is working for which side. Any visitor is highly suspected. Among Nkunda’s forces are members who have integrated into the DRC regular security forces through various agreements, while there are others that have not, these different troops have close relationships and they are viewed suspiciously by the MONUC, the DRC army and several other formal and informal security organs. Occasionally, when Nkunda’s integrated forces visit their non-integrated colleagues clashes breakout especially in Sake. The town has been a centre with control rights swinging between Nkunda, MONUC and currently the DRC army. Sake, on the road to Mushake, has twice fallen to Nkunda in a year and serves as a staging point for the army. MONUC has said any rebel attempt to re-take the town would be met with full force. Because of the looming threat of war outbreak, Sake market is largely dominated by women and children selling mainly cassava manioc, goats and sheep suspected to be from the territory controlled by General Nkunda. The threat in this area is likely to linger on and the residents live in constant fear. Ends