More Violence, Country Club Walls Doing Fine
The fighting between General Nkunda’s forces and the Congolese army that I mentioned in a previous post has been intensifying. The fighting has pressed as close as twenty kilometers from town, in all directions. There are small arms streaming in over the Rwandan border, and some of the pilots I know will point at cargo planes flying overhead and note that they’re flying like there’s heavy artillery inside. Fortunately, I think the latter will be in the hands of the government’s forces.
And yet, people in town seem relatively unconcerned. We’re given security briefings in the morning, but life for me continues as normal. Morning runs and swims, breakfast, work at the hospital, dinner, occasional forays into bars and clubs across town, rinse, repeat. The pilots down the lakefront have constructed what they call the Party Barge; essentially an outboard motor, a bunch of empty oil drums with planks lashed on top. They set lawn chairs on top of the mess and use it to troll around the lake, getting wasted. The running joke is that the Barge will be our evacuation craft should the need arise. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t joke too much: Mom, if things get out of hand, we muzungus are the first to get transport (by car, boat, or if necessary by UN helicopter) out of here.
It’s unlikely to come to that, however. The U.N. garrison in Goma is formidable. More significantly, the political ramifications for Nkunda would be devastating, should his forces overrun Goma.
Note: despite the view from Goma, the country as a whole is fairly stable. It’s just our area that seems to be flaring up.
Related Posts:
- Fighting Beyond the Country Club Walls (August, 2007)
- Congolese Plane Crashes (April, 2008)
- Monkeys and Gunships (September, 2007)
- Potential Instructable? (September, 2007)
- Mugunga (September, 2007)
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