Great Lakes Region

"Last year, over 300 women, girls, men and boys were raped, and thirteen villages looted along the Mpofi-Kibua axis, a few miles to the north of the center of Wilikale. A mass crime put down to a supposed coalition between the Mai-Mai Sheka and FDLR to regain, through terror, control over a territory known for its mineral wealth. The regular army, the FARDC, which was supposed to be deployed over this zone, apparently ignored its mission, and chose to 'keep secure' the big coltan mine in Bisié. The Indian casques bleus from the nearby MONUSCO base, English speakers, didn’t see anything from their small fort.

(…) The soldiers cross the tracks and trails by foot, the population moves about as little as possible, but it isn’t easy for vendors like Sifa and Safi. The Amani Léo 'Peace Today' operation, jointly run by the FARDC and MONUSCO to fight the FDLR in 2010, above all led to the army making multiples exactions on the population and aroused the FDLR’s wrath and vengeance on the same villagers. Today, the little people fear the FARDC even more than the rebel groups and suspect the casques bleus of being their allies in stealing underground treasures…"

Extract from Ténèbres au Paradis, 2011, Éditions Gallimard