Families sent home to ruins of east DR Congo conflict

Kimoka (R), a woman who was shot in the cheek while attempting to clean her plot and burn the trash, poses for a photo with her family in Sake on February 27, 2025. [AFP] When the Banyene family were sent back to their home in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, all that had survived the fighting was a crumbling wall and sagging metal roof. Shell casings from automatic weapons littered the plot, leftovers from the conflict between the Congolese army and the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group that had until recently riven their Sake hometown. The Banyenes, like most of Sake's inhabitants, had found refuge in a displaced persons camp on the outskirts of the city of Goma, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Sake in an area blighted by regional wars for decades. But at the end of January Goma, capital of North Kivu province, was seized by the M23 as part of a lightning offensive which has seen the group occupy swathes of territory in the eastern DRC. Then in early February the M23 ordered those displaced by the conflict -- including the Banyene family -- to return to what remained of their homes. In a matter of days' camps where hundreds of thousands of people had been crammed together in dire conditions emptied out. And so Sake, which sits on the Congolese bank of Lake Kivu across from Rwanda, filled up again. "It's better to be at home than in the camps," said Tumani Feresi, one of the family's elder brothers. But "we had to leave the camp with nothing and we have difficulty eating", he added. Bombs in fields Although Sake is coming back to life its fragile wooden houses, scattered among grey volcanic rock, bear the scars of conflict. A flimsy sheet of tarpaulin has been put up to paper over a collapsed section of the wall of the Banyene house. Two tents have hastily sprung up to help house the family's 20 or so members, who range in age from young children to the elderly. Like the vast majority of the town's population the family are farmers, but dare not till their fields yet. "There are bombs that haven't exploded (in the fields)," Patient, one of the family's sons said. He gestured towards the surrounding bush, still stalked by fighters from militias loyal to the DRC who fled the clashes with the M23. "If a woman goes to the field to get firewood, she will be raped there," said Kivuruga, another Banyene brother. He said that the M23 -- which according to UN experts is backed by at least 4,000 Rwandan soldiers -- has mostly restored security in Sake. Many shops have reopened since mid-February and residents now flock to the town's market where fruit and vegetables grown on the province's fertile hills are sold under tarpaulin sheets. But sometimes the fighters emerge from the hills at night to commit theft and robbery in his neighbourhood, Kivuruga added. No money On the road to South Kivu's provincial capital Bukavu, AFP met many villagers who found their houses looted on their return. Near Shasha, a village nestled in the hollow of the mountains on the shores of Lake Kivu, Sarah Kahindo told AFP: "I was happy when I returned home in January." As she worked with a dozen women and girls from the village under a cloudless sky she told AFP she was lucky to have avoided the worst of the violence. "My field was in good condition, but our house had been completely looted," Kahindo added. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 44 percent of people who returned to North and South Kivu "found their fields occupied" by people from other places working in them. More than one in 10 who returned to their homes found them inhabited by interlopers who had moved in in their absence, the OCHA added. Kahindo said the M23 had made the area safer. "Since the M23 arrived, there has been no problems with security, we sleep well and we work in our fields without problems," Kahindo said. But economic recovery is taking time. Banks are still closed in zones controlled by the M23 on the orders of the DRC. The DRC accuses the armed group of being a tool for Rwanda to exploit its neighbour's agricultural lands and vast mineral wealth -- though Rwanda denies this. "You can go and sell things, but it's difficult to find a buyer because there's no money about," Kahindo said. At the port of Minova, an important commercial hub for Goma and its surroundings, traders warned that business is slower than usual. Its market was deserted by the early evening, three hours earlier than its normal closing time. Fresh fruit, vegetables and fish still line the market stalls. "But there is no more money for business," said shopkeeper Sylvie, whose home was also destroyed in the fighting.

Families sent home to ruins of east DR Congo conflict

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