The Kivu provinces: Finding peace when war is at your back door

BY MAYAL TSHIABUILA

To take a mental journey to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and conditions in the North and South Kivu provinces, consider what it would be like if the state or province in which you live was bordered by nine other countries, and refugees and militants from one or two of those nations regularly poured into your neighborhood, fighting and pursuing their own political agendas without any concern about how that might affect your life, your home, your work, your children.

For over a decade, people who live in the Kivus—two of the provinces in DRC—have had that experience. Situated in eastern DRC, they share a common border with Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. (See www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/drcongo.pdf.) North Kivu is home to the Virunga National Park, a World Heritage site that contains the endangered mountain gorillas. This writer, who lives in Kinshasa, the capital of DRC, explains the devastating effects of this prolonged warlike state, and the spiritual truths he is using to pray about it.

In 1994, following the genocide in Rwanda, thousands of Rwandan Hutu troops and militia, said to be responsible for the genocide, along with civilians, fled into the Kivu provinces of my country. War broke out again in 1996 and 1998. This second war had no winner, but was settled in 2002 through a peace agreement signed by all parties in South Africa. As a result, DRC had legal institutions—an elected president, national parliament, and provincial assemblies—in place by the end of 2006 and early 2007. At the national level, the tone was set for the reconstruction of the country.