Visiting WFP chief warns of impending humanitarian disaster in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kasai region (31.10.2017)

WFP is ramping up emergency assistance there, planning to reach 500,000 of the most vulnerable by end-December, and many more early next year.

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, October 31, 2017 – A humanitarian catastrophe is looming in the conflict-ravaged south-central Greater Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the head of the United Nations World Food Programme warned yesterday as he wrapped up a four-day mission to the central African country that included a visit to Kasai. Some 3.2 million people in the region are severely food insecure, struggling to feed themselves and in need of assistance.

“As many as 700,000 babies and children could starve in Kasai in the next few months unless enough nutritious food reaches them quickly”, David Beasley said. “We need access to those children, and we need money – urgently.”

Kasai’s traditionally high rates of malnutrition were pushed higher following the eruption last year of inter-ethnic violence characterised by large-scale killing, the wholesale destruction of villages and crops, and the targeting of hospitals, clinics and schools. The region now accounts for more than 40 percent of the DRC’s 7.7 million severely food insecure.

WFP is ramping up emergency assistance there, planning to reach 500,000 of the most vulnerable by end-December, and many more early next year. Dozens more staff are being deployed, an additional 80 off-road trucks are being brought in to deliver food to remote areas, and the WFP-run United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), presently flying aid supplies and aid workers to seven locations in the region, is being expanded.

But WFP’s emergency operation, launched in August, has so far been financed by internal borrowings, and only one percent of the US$135 million required through mid-2018 has been secured from the international community.

While the violence in Kasai has diminished in recent weeks, banditry and extortion are commonplace. Moreover, in a region the size of Germany with multiple active militias and a road network that is largely impassable during the September-December rainy season, humanitarian access is set to remain a challenge.

WFP’s work in eastern North Kivu province, also witnessed by Beasley, is likewise constrained by access challenges and limited funding. Just 250,000 of the province’s one million displaced people – victims of two decades of conflict – are receiving assistance, and only half rations.

Much of DRC’s population is dependent on subsistence farming, and competition for land is often at the heart of its violence. Many conflict-displaced families who had returned to their villages in North Kivu and Kasai told Beasley they could not resume working their fields, such was their fear still of being attacked.

“I have met too many women and children whose lives have been reduced to a desperate struggle for survival”, Beasley said. “In a land so rich in resources, that’s heart-breaking. And it’s unacceptable.”

Beasley acknowledged donor concerns about limited return on investments in a better future for the Congolese people, noting that some governments have threatened to redirect such funding to countries where they say it will have more impact.

“I hear those concerns”, Beasley said. “But let’s not hold innocent women and children responsible for the failings of others.”

“What the brave people I met over the last few days want most of all is peace – peace to be able to grow their own food, to rebuild their lives and to build a brighter tomorrow for their children. It’s a simple, powerful message, and I have conveyed it to President Kabila, urging that he do his part to bring about much-needed change.”

My Letter to President Faure Gnassingbe: “on your continued silence!”

Dear Sir,

You Excellency of the Republic of Togo, Faure Gnassingbe!

You have been able to be President of this beautiful republic since 5th February 2005 after your fathers death, who had run the republic since 14th April 1967. With this year coming to an end, your family fortune and legacy has been in the will of having the office of President for 5 decades, 50 years. You have already served two term. And you are planning to alter the Constitution so you can have an official third term in office. You are planning to stay as long as your father.

That is the reason why I write to you. Not because I have any rights, any ownership or control. I am just a citizen of the world and would a guy that you had hired to clerical work or even wash one of your mansions in Lome. To you Mr. President, I am a nobody and righteously so.

That is why this is urgent. The Togolais, the Togolese people, the demonstrations, the detained citizens, the families of the fallen citizens at these demonstrations and those who has fled the republic. Are all on your watch. It is all because of you and your decision to stay in power. They wouldn’t be in the streets for #TogoDebout if you we’re not in power. There wouldn’t be #FaureMustGo and other posters carried in the streets and until the late hours. They are doing this, because your family the Gnassingbe has ruled this republic and not let it go.

It would be right thing, to listen and give your reason. You are trying to acts as Paul Biya of Cameroon, just relaxing in Europe, while your republic is burning. The yearning for liberation and freedom. Liberty and Democratic Principals. You are willing to risk it all, just for selfish reasons. It will be all about you, nothing else will matter.

I hope that you as a President, the Executive and all the above, believes you are more worth and has better understanding of all Togolese, more than the 7,600,000 million that are living there. That your mind is better fit and has a natural right to rule over these masses of people. In the country of “Work, Liberty and Homeland”. You should work for justice and freedom for all, so that they enjoy the liberties of being citizens there and always know you can trust their government.

It is time to work and not be silent, because the people deserve liberty in their homeland. It is time for President Gnassingbe to work, maybe even an ordinary job and have a paycheck at a foreign NGO. Since you are not in touch or listening to the people screaming for liberty in the streets.

They deserve that you listen and acts, that you talks and acts accordingly. The Togolaise deserve this, the millions of citizens deserves liberty in their homeland. Not just for you and your family. They deserve justice and rule of law. This isn’t right.

Let me clear, even if I am nobody, an unknown and just a mere stranger. You do not own Togo, Mr. President, His Excellency Faure Gnassingbe! You owe your place and position because of the goodwill of the Togolaise, the Togolese, you represent them, they don’t own you anything. It is time for you see and understand that. They are not obligated to do anything for you and make sure you live lavish. That is up to them.

It is time you humble yourself and become one of us common-folk, become a citizen and become some who is not representing anyone. Except that you represent the legacy of your family and your clan. But you will not represent the Republic of Togo. That has ended. Especially when you cannot address the misgivings, the oppression and the tormented public who continue to demonstrate until you fall.

It is time that you speak out and take charge, that you show some courage and bravery and steps down. That you give way and opens up for a new government with a President. That is not in your family and within your control. That should be reasonable, your family has ruled for 50 years, which is more than enough.

Your silence is just a breathe of indifference and a sign of weakness. That you don’t have character to stand up for oppression and you ill-willed actions against the ones you represent. That you cannot have the stomach or the heart to explain your grievances and your misgivings. That you cannot stand up for your orders of police brutality and state organized violence. That you are silently on stand-by, your just a person living with no concern and do not care.

That is you Mr. President, is that really you?

Best Regards

Write of Minbane

Opinion: The International Community should help the Togolese people in their hour of need and quit the silence!

Well, this is again about President Faure Gnassingbé, the current President of Togo. He is currently planning a third term for his presidency. That has sparked a fire and fury into the opposition. Which also ignited the public. They are not accepting the family rule of Gnassingbe. The Gnassingbe family rule have lasted for 50 years. Clearly, the public has their rights to address this and they have done so since the August 2017. They are continuing weeks after weeks upon end. What is worse is the meager silence of the world. The bitter ignorance of the situation. Nearly, every single day there is someone who has been assaulted and killed by the Police. This dictatorship has to stopped, the people deserves better and their demonstrations should be respected.

There are so many, countless individuals who has stood up against the ruling party and their second generation totalitarian dictator Gnassingbe. This because the President tries to abolish term limits, so he can overstay and continue to rule without question. That is seen as unacceptable and righteously so. Gnassingbe who currently rule has been in power since 4th May 2005. So he had has his time in power and is time to step down.

Since the African Union, The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), United Nations (UN) and all other international bodies has been silenced or just the mere smear documents. The different partners within Togo needs to have dialogue and needs to settle their differences. The bloodshed and the demonstration is creating instability and no-one earns on that. Well, the dialogue only earns the dictator and the indifference of situation only gains him. That is why the partners and the stakeholders should be aware.

What is worrying is not only the dying protesters. It is the utter silence, like it is denounced and the nothing of sorts from the for life President Gnassingbe. That he is not saying anything, while his citizens are suffering. The people are shot at, banned from demonstrating and if they do, they might be put on top of Police Pick-Ups and thrown on the back like cattle. This is fellow human beings, could be our brother and sister. This isn’t justice, this is the definition of INJUSTICE. The acts of belittling and hurting fellow human beings and using the powers of the state to silence them.

Togo needs recognition, Togo uprising need the support, and it deserves so. #TogoEnMarche and #TogoDebout. That people are lifted up on trucks by soldiers and anti-riot police, hit with batons and harassed. This is not acceptable. It is wrong and demeaning. That people are caught in police stations without charges and awaiting trial. For just standing up for the constitution and term limits is insane.

But that shows how bad the system and the state is, still the statements and acts of the international community is a joke. It is not sincere and deserves to be mocked. The citizens of Togo is under siege, their uprising is violently being disrupted and intimidated. Not like that matter, it is in the wrong zip-code, this nations main trading partners France and China doesn’t care. Benin and Burkina Faso has enough to deal with on their own. They don’t need to involved in the matters of Lome.

The Togolese doesn’t deserve this injustice, no people deserve this injustice. When we know that the civil disobedience and their demonstrations has been peaceful, they have been controlled and showed the power of the people, week after week. The Togolese deserve an intervention, because the state don’t care about their citizens. All the killed protesters, all the ones hospitalized and the ones who has loved ones behind bars. Should know that the international community stand behind their cause. Instead, utter demeaning silence.

It. Has. To. Stop. And. Now. This is not right, the Togolese deserves better. They deserve credit and recognition. They deserve people standing up for them and helping them in this hour of need. That time is now! Peace.

Togo: PaxAfricana – Appel (20.10.2017)

Opinion: Burundian government support of Mayi-Mayi in Kivu Provnices; is it a ploy to keep Kabila in Power?

The instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been used by the other states in the Great Lakes Region. This has been done in the past by both Rwandan and Ugandan forces, even South Sudanese rebels has been on DRC territory at some point. Therefore, its a massive change that the Burundian support of rebels. Seems like it been used as propaganda tool by the Bujumbura government. That President Pierre Nkurunziza is using his CNDD-FDD youth militia the Imbonerakure, to create havoc at the neighbor country in collaboration with the Mai-Mai Yakutumba.

There is even an agreement flooding online between Mayi-Mayi Jejero Pelican and representative of the Burundian government Eltienne Ntakuratimana, who wrote an agreement on the 8th February 2017, where the Burundian counterparts would supply guns, ammunition and radios to the Mayi-Mayi group in response of taking out the Rwandan counterparts in the region.

So first after giving a short insight to who the Mayi-Mayi militia is, I will give one report on the Burundian enterprise in the Democratic Republic of Congo, before showing my thoughts on the manner. Where the different rumors are combined with critical thinking on the actors in the conflict of the Kivu’s. Who earns and what purpose. Take a look!

A tale of who the Mayi-Mayi or Mai-Mai is explained nicely here:

This inter-community power conflict is shaped by and shapes antagonistic identities, which are firmly rooted in specific worldviews. In the case of the Mai Mai Yakutumba, this worldview is constructed around the idea of “autochthony”, or the concept of being a “Son of the Soil”, the “original” inhabitant of a certain zone. In this perspective, which is shared by almost all Mai-Mai groups in the DRC, the self-styled autochthonous groups are threatened by the Rwandophone communities (Hutu and Tutsi), who are seen as “foreigners” trying to take over their land and power. Betweeen 1996 and 2003, “autochthonous” and Tutsi (often Banyamulenge)-led groups clashed on numerous occasions in southern South Kivu, and there were several ethnically targeted massacres on both sides. The resulting mutual distrust and dislike continue to feed Mai Mai movements like the Yakutumba group, which serves to many Babembe as a psychological safeguard to avoid that the Banyamulenge will extend their power in Fizi and will come to dominate the Babembe” (…) “It is in part this function as a safeguard that makes Yakutumba fairly popular among the Babembe, although many do not approve of armed struggle and are tired of the war. What also contributes to Yakutumba’s popularity is that he is perceived to symbolize and embody what are seen as typical Bembe characteristics and values, such as resistance against domination and repression, not only from other ethnic groups, but also from the central government. This self-imagery is in part the product of a tradition of Bembe resistance dating back to the colonial era, the Mulele rebellion in the 1960s and the Fizi-based rebellion of Laurent-Désiré Kabila under the Mobutu regime. The Mai Mai Yakutumba place themselves explicitly in this tradition, which implies a strong animosity towards Kinshasa. They consider the regime of Kabila jr. to be complicit with the Rwandophones and their plan to ‘balkanize’ the DRC, backed by resource-hungry imperialist powers” (Verweijen, 2011).

This shows the plans and added support of the group from Burundi would serve their purpose, as well as give them strength to create havoc in the Kivu’s. Since they want power and be different than the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), also different from FDLR and ADF. Who all have been militias contributing to violence and weakening the control of these eastern states of the Republic. As well, being proof of the lacking control that the Central Government from Kinshasa has in the region. With all the eyes that we’re on M23 who has had armed insurgency and also tried to gain control of the area. It’s wouldn’t be the first try someone who has supported a group like Mayi-Mayi/Mai-Mai has done it in the Kivu’s, to show Kabila and his government, that they want to be a force to be recon with.

Very few smart commentators aside. However, Gibert-Bécaud Njangwa, president of the association ONELOPE-Burundi (mobility) finds that the capture of Uvira by Yakutumba would destabilize peace and security in Bujumbura. He is not talking about a threat from some Burundian rebel group. But he suspects that behind Yakutumba is the invisible hand of the West: “It is very likely that Burundi is attacked by mercenaries from Congo Kinshasa so that the West can destabilize peace and security in the subregion. The Government of Burundi must be vigilant, if not the plan of destabilization is well conceived, planned, it can be executed from one moment to another” (…) “Another reading by the former communication commissioner of the Burundian opposition platform CNARED: “Uncontradicted evidence shows that Mai-Mai Yakutumba are working with Burundian intelligence, Imbonerakure militia in DRC, Interahamwe militiamen who are also allies of the Burundian regime. We have evidence that Mai-Mai Yakutumba are supplied with weapons from Bujumbura, we also know that elements of the regime are fighting alongside them. “(Ngendakumana, 2017).

If all of this isn’t bad enough, there are speculations that National pour le Renouveau et la Democratie (CNRD-Ubwiyunge) and Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), who is Rwandan counterparts in the same region. CNRD-Ubwiyunge have been an armed militia who has tried to gain control. While the FDLR has been more trying to recoup strength to go back and take their motherland back again from the Rwandan Patriotic Front(RPF). Therefore, the troubles of the region, also transpires in the Kivu States. So, the problems and the power-struggle of Burundi is now reaching the mineral rich Kivu’s and Uvira.

There reports that both CNRD and FDLR has been fighting together with Mayi-Mayi this month and in the battles for Uvira this week. If that is likely or true, than it wouldn’t fit the pattern and the history of the Mayi-Mayi, but they are accepting foreign support from Burundi, so if they would use help of Rwandan supported groups. It would be more powerful and even stronger, in the region where the FARDC and MONUSCO is lacking manpower and resources. If they had enough and if they could, they would have been able to banish these groups long time ago, but the Kabila government is keeping them. Just like he is accepting insurgency from Kisoro, Uganda into Southern Kivu, since its from the friends that brought him into power.

There is even further conspiracy that Pierre Nkurunziza is working together with Joseph Kabila to make instability and insurgency, so that there is no need for another election and end of his term. Secondly, the support and the instability is made to make sure the FARDC could get support from French Government, which they can use to invade and control the Rwandan Government. That is only plausible, if the French wants to challenge Paul Kagame, since he has distanced himself from Paris during recent years. Thirdly, the Burundian government would use their relationship with Kabila and Paris to gain proper capital to their struggling economy. So the trade of arms to militias in Kivu Provinces, would enrich the weak Bujumbura government.

Sidebar: We can just wonder if even Emmanuel Macron would care about these places, since he is more into make-up, then international politics, just remember his ignorance towards the African continent earlier this year. Therefore, parts of me doubt it, but French involvement in regime change on the continent isn’t new, but would a risky project for the newly elected French President to pull-off. Even more seasoned leaders has struggled with doing so.

Sidebar II: It is more reasonable to use this insurgency to enforce the need for Kabila, just as the running battles in Kasai-Orientale, which has killed dozens and made massive amounts of mass-graves. So that his leadership could again regain peace, but this is different. Just like the sudden movement of M23 from camps in Kisoro in 2016 and early 2017, that just fitted the paradigm of using militias as pawns. The innocent lives in the Kivu Provinces to let Kabila government rule a little longer. The same could be possible yet again. This time instead of having either Rwandan or Ugandan supported militias, it would be the cash-strapped Burundian government, who would need the financial support and the trade with the groups. Clearly, it makes it more plausible, as the net of well-wishers are dwindling for Bujumbura as well.

We just have to wait and see, what is fact and what is fiction. What we do know is that that Bukavu and Uvira has seen violence and insurgency this last few days. That the DRC/RDC has seen militias growing in strength and if foreign states are interfering in the Kivu’s. Peace.

Reference:

Ngendakumana, Phillipe – ‘Et si les Maï-Maï Yakutumba prenaient Uvira, la ville de Bujumbura serait-elle menacée?’ (30.09.2017) link: http://www.ikiriho.org/2017/09/30/burundi-rdc-mai-mai-yakutumba-prenaient-uvira-la-ville-de-bujumbura-serait-elle-menacee-monusco/

Verweijen, Judith – ‘Guest Blog: Profile of Mai-Mai Yakutumba’ (01.08.2011) link: http://congosiasa.blogspot.no/2011/08/guest-blog-profile-of-mai-mai-yakutumba.html

MONUSCO is gravely concerned by the use of lethal weapons by Congolese defense and security forces in a crowd control operation in Bukavu (26.09.2017)

Congolese defense and security forces reportedly fired warning shots to disperse demonstrators protesting against rampant insecurity and repeated cases of armed robbery in the locality.

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, September 26, 2017 – The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Head of MONUSCO, Maman Sidikou, is gravely concerned by the use of lethal force by Congolese defense and security forces in response to public protests in Bukavu, South Kivu province, leading to civilian casualties including children.

This morning, in the Panzi neighborhood of Bukavu, Congolese defense and security forces reportedly fired warning shots to disperse demonstrators protesting against rampant insecurity and repeated cases of armed robbery in the locality. An 8-year girl, on her way to school, was reportedly hit by a stray bullet and subsequently died. According to credible reports received by MONUSCO, there are additional casualties and the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office is investigating to collect more detailed information.

“Defense and security forces have an obligation to use force only as the last resort, in compliance with the principles of necessity, proportionality and legality, pursuant to the international standards. Alleged violence perpetrated by protestors should never be an excuse for the use of lethal force”, said Maman Sidikou, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Head of MONUSCO.

“Furthermore, I urge Congolese authorities to ensure that law enforcement personnel is adequately equipped and trained to engage in crowd-control operations, and call on the authorities to urgently carry out prompt, credible and independent investigations into this incident, as a mean to prevent loss of civilian lives during future protests”, Sidikou concluded.

RDC: CENI – Communique de Presse (24.08.2017)

RDC: CASC – “A l’intention de l’opinion nationale et internationale” (24.08.2017)

RDC: Manifeste du Citoyen Congolais (18.08.2017)

RDC: Province du Kwilu – “Objet: Accuse de Reception” (16.08.2017)