It was the message they hoped never to hear again, but when they did, the villagers of Kalambairo did not hesitate: they fled.
Warned that soldiers were on the way, the 1 900 inhabitants hid in wooded hills overlooking the village and endured the familiar spectacle of livestock being stolen, the water supply being cut and homes being burned.
They returned to sift through the rubble last week, after the soldiers had gone.
”All we have is what we are standing in,” said Muchinga Ndeene (35) surrounded by his five children. ”Everything is gone. This happened to us in 1996 and 1998, but I thought we were supposed to be at peace now.”
Officially, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s war, a brutal conflict which convulsed central Africa and cost more than three million lives, ended last year when foreign armies withdrew and rival Congolese groups formed a power-sharing government.
But, as Kalambairo has discovered, sporadic fighting continues and there was the prospect of another full-scale war on Thursday when Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, threatened to invade his giant neighbour.
”The war is already on. At the appropriate moment, we certainly will take action,” he told the Associated Press. Kagame said the continued presence in the DRC of Rwandan Hutu rebels, including the men responsible for the 1994 genocide, left him no alternative.
Rwanda has invaded twice before, in 1996 and 1998, citing the same reason. The continued threat has prompted the United Nations to reinforce its 10 000-strong peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo. It is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to stop the former Belgian colony tumbling back into the abyss.
Despite numerous crises, the DRC’s government has survived, and improved security has allowed aid to reach areas long starved of food and medicine. Elections are due next year.
But swaths of the east grow more turbulent. Rwandan Hutu fighters still rove the forests, prompting Kagame’s threats.
A separate but related problem is that rival Congolese factions have failed to integrate into a new national army. Instead, they are waging micro-conflicts which have displaced more than 150 000 people since June.
Testament to how swiftly the mayhem can spread are the scorched ruins of Kalambairo, one of 11 villages ravaged by fighting which Bernard Leflaive, a senior UN humanitarian official, said was typical.
”The different leaders are still fighting each other for the control of natural resources and in these areas the civilian population is extremely vulnerable. It is the first victim of these games,” he said.
Two groups have long vied for control in the provinces of North and South Kivu. The Mayi-Mayi militia were ostensibly allied to the wartime Congolese government in Kinshasa, while the rebel RCD-Goma took orders from Rwanda. Under the peace accords, they were given identical uniforms and told they were to be the 4th and 11th brigades of the same army.
Government salaries, cars and offices have helped keep senior leaders sweet in distant Kinshasa, but nothing has been done to keep the lower ranks happy, said one diplomat. Paid poorly, if at all, undisciplined and feeling abandoned, these fighters calculate they have more to gain from looting and shooting than maintaining the fiction of an integrated national army, he said.
Last month, clashes between the Mayi-Mayi and RCD-Goma erupted in the mountains, apparently after one group entered the other’s territory to steal livestock, said Nicolas Mwami, chief of the area. ”They are like old dogs and it is civilians who pay the price.”
As the fighters ran riot, villages emptied. A clinic at Bishange treated 191 people for wounds and illnesses incurred during their flight. A total of 11 000 were displaced, according to the UN and local authorities. No death toll was given.
The clashes subsided when rival commanders were summoned to the provincial capital, Goma. Only one was detained and he was expected to be released soon.
Near the scene of the fighting, Mayi-Mayi soldiers draped in knives and charms, some barely into their teens, promised revenge against their opponents. ”We will kill them all the next time,” said one boy.
Told that these foes were officially his comrades, one boy looked blank. ”They are the enemy,” he said.
Villagers carrying bundles trekked home with trepidation. In Kalambairo, 36 homes were destroyed, among them the thatched hut of Kinihirwa Gimweray (12) who stared but said nothing as neighbours rummaged through its embers.
”These people need blankets and plastic sheeting urgently,” said Gilbert Masumbuko, of Concern Worldwide, the first aid agency on the scene.
However, another aid agency, Solidarity, decided against distributing non-food items lest the recipients become targets for fresh looting.
As dusk settled on Kalambairo, a burst of gunfire across the valley jolted the returning villagers. Who was shooting, and why, was anyone’s guess. – Guardian Unlimited Â