Scottish Catholic Observer

The day before we left for the DR Congo, we were in Cyangugu, a Rwandan town just across the border from Bukavu, our Congolese destination. The two conurbations are seperated only by a border, so I asked a local priest, how different Bukavu was from his home.

He just laughed… At length.

“You’ll see,” he said. “It’s different.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Kinshasa is the capital and the largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and faces the capital of the neighbouring Republic of Congo. There is almost no government in Kinshasa. It is a place were many rules we take for granted seem to apply. Not least the law of gravity, given the impossible large objects, including, mattress, tables and dozens of boxes residents seem to be able to carry on their heads.

At the last census in 2012, Bukavu, 1000 miles from Kinshasa, was said to have eight hundred thousand residents, but local officials suspect the true figure may be close to double that now. The fighting which has ravaged the eastern Congo for most of the last 20 years has driven many villagers from the surrounding area to seek sanctuary there. In addition there is a large UN presence and while locals scoff at there supposed ‘peacekeeping’ role, they do bring a lot of money to the city.

As does the Congo’s vast mineral wealth, but though there are signs of wealth in the town most people face a crushing level of poverty.

The lack of governance and legacy of conflict also means it is a dangerous place, even now, and though formal conflict has largely stopped, many of those involved in that fighting continues with lives of violence, unable to leave their guns and machetes behind.

In recent months I was told the city has seen a upsurge in the kidnapping of children, who are ransomed for profit. In addition many tell darker unverifiable tales, of children snatched and organs removed to be sold for sorcrous purposes.

It is hear, it this lawless, desperate place, that the local Church, with the help of partners like SCIAF, is holding the line helping those who need it most.

—SCO deputy editor Ian Dunn (above) is travelling this month in Africa with the Scottish International Aid Fund (SCIAF) ahead of the aid agency’s 50th anniversary next year.

—Visit http://www.sciaf.org.uk/