A couple news stories, today, about the Congo. I blog them because they have a little bit more context than the usual dispatches that I get from the area (e.g. “Boat Sinks on Lake Kivu, Killing 20″):

• “A Life with Hope” has a brief description of roots of Congo’s troubles, and some anecdotes about people who are working to stabilize the country.
• “Faction Uproots Thousands in Congo” is more of a regular news item (and thus less optimistic), but has some good information of the current political climate.

By the way, it may seem from these articles that I will be working in an incredibly dangerous area. North Kivu overall is indeed a really dangerous place to be, but Goma proper will not be. As the Sacbee reporter noted, “Somehow the horrors of this conflict seem to be elusive and happen all too often out of sight.” Part of the problem of this conflict is that so many of the atrocious acts occur out in the vast countryside, where there are few cameras.

So, for better or for worse, I will be fairly safe.

Related Posts:

• Goma Security Alerts (December, 2007)
• Congolese Plane Crashes (April, 2008)
• Congo line! (August, 2007)
• Video from the Mugunga Camps (January, 2008)
• Hutus vs Tutsis: an Op-Ed (November, 2007)

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 9:37 am and is filed under goma, personal, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.