2023-10-09 07:24:45
Time.news – La Democratic Republic of Congotheater of one decades-long humanitarian crisis now forgotten, it is in the news due to the long-awaited electoral deadline of 20 December. Two and a half months from the crucial one appointment with the polls the country atmosphere lights up with the sensational candidacy of Denis Mukwegeil Congolese gynecologist Nobel Peace Prize 2018who promises to “fix” his country.
A candidacy also made possible by the strong support of Congolese women who managed to raise the sum of one hundred thousand dollars necessary to file the candidacy. An initiative emblematic of the resilience of the civil society of the country of the Great Lakes and of the gratitude towards the medico That dal 1992, in his Panzi Hospital in Bukavu (South Kivu), “repairs girls and women” victims of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
The candidacy of the gynecologist-hero
On the t-shirts worn by Mukwege’s supporters stands the photo of the gynecologist-hero who already escaped several attacks with the slogan “Notre Espoir”, “Our Hope”.
In recent days they have been deposited other nominations: that of the outgoing president Félix Tshisekedi for a second term and of his challenger in the 2018 elections, Martin Fayulu, who will try to take office from him. Also in the running will be Moise Katumbi, a very rich entrepreneur and former governor of the Katanga mining region.
But it was the well-known 68-year-old doctor who stole the show, ready once again to put himself at the service of the most suffering, extending the skills acquired over many years in the field, on the front line, to other areas. In his speech to announce the candidacy, Mukwege spoke in Swahili, the language of the East, in Lingala, the language of Kinshasa, and in French.
Mukwege the ideal candidate
For the local press, it summarizes all the characteristics of the ideal candidate: he comes from civil society, has an excellent reputation, is known and appreciated internationally, and is of recognized integrity. However, there is no shortage of challenges, being a novice in politics, without the support of a structured party and a real national base.
To define the current situation in your country, Mukwege he talked about one “unprecedented existential crisis”despite the immense mineral, agricultural and water potential, “plundered by the rapacity of foreigners, forced to import food, often without water”, without forgetting the daily threat of dozens of armed groups that have raged in the Eastern provinces for decades , on the border with Rwanda and Uganda.
The same diagnosis was made by experts and humanitarian workers who spoke at the recent humanitarian dialogue organized by Doctors Without Borders Italy (MSF) entitled: “Rd. Congo, an endless humanitarian crisis.”
Food insecurity for 26 million people
Twenty-six million of people (24% of the population) are found today in condition of serious food insecurity, 6.2 million are internally displaced and more than half a million refugees. All numbers that make the Democratic Republic of Congo the African nation with the highest number of internally displaced people and citizens affected by food insecurity in the world.
L’epicenter from the crisis endless is the North Kivualready the scene of the ‘First African World War’ in 1998, where local militias and foreign rebel groups are still fighting for control of the territory and the rich subsoil, while civilians are also victims of the violence of the regular armed forces who on paper should protect them.
Yet the media spotlight rarely shines on this now forgotten crisis to which the attention of the international community is still insufficient. Furthermore, by December 2023 i blue helmets of the Monusco – the most expensive UN mission in the world, deployed since 1999, – they will leave the country without having managed to defend the threatened civilians, also due to the unclear mandate entrusted and the ambiguous nature of their presence.
Since the beginning of 2023, due to the surge in clashes and attacks, in Goma alone, the capital of North Kivu, 600 thousand new displaced people have been registered in camps that have reached their maximum reception capacity.
Humanitarian bomb malnutrition
“We are in the presence of a real health and humanitarian bomb. In a few months it is doubled il malnutrition rate among children and there is a surge in cases of cholera and measles, particularly in the ten refugee camps in Masisi,” reported Marco Sandrone of Doctors Without Borders, project coordinator in Masisi, North Kivu.
“Inflation has doubled the cost of living and due to the strong violence, the ability of NGOs and other actors to intervene has further decreased. In the peripheral centers many facilities are closed and medical care is paid for, with the exception of those aimed at pregnant women and children under 5 years old”, the MSF operator continued.
The area of the project he coordinated is a mountainous area of 700 thousand inhabitants, as large as the entire province of Rome, where moving to reach civilians in need is a daily undertaking.
In addition to having to deal with checkpoints and violence from the myriad of rebels, with whom they are forced to negotiate, the humanitarian workers have to travel along white and muddy roads – it rains 9 months a year, as much as in England – taking several days to arrive to destination by motorized means and after hours and hours of walking.
“In terms of severe acute malnutrition – which in this province affects 15% of children under 5 years of age – the situation in the central-western province of Greater Kasai, known for diamond mining, is even more critical. There is no infrastructure, agricultural subsistence resources are almost completely non-existent and intensive care units are always crowded”, testified Giovanni Sciolto, representative in Rd. Congo of Action contre la faim (ACF).
The commitment of doctors
Sciolto highlighted the “extraordinary work by Congolese doctors who work day and night” in the clinics, with very limited means, within a collapsing national health system and with a labyrinthine bureaucracy, with very slow turnaround times. Furthermore, the relationship with the local population is very strong and “protects us operators from many local threats”, continued Sciolto, expressing gratitude.
“Even the violations of the human rights of civilians are the order of the day, with enormous needs to respond to”, explained Paola Pileri, delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Goma, with a specific mandate to protect prisoners. “Protecting them and assisting them is truly complex for the great dynamism of the fighting and the high number of displaced people and refugees. One of the many priority interventions consists in reuniting lost, exploited or recruited minors with their families with their families, thanks to a tracking system based on new technologies”.
Global competition for resources
“Stop isolating the Democratic Republic of Congo from the rest of Africa and Europe. We are not facing each other to one ethnic or tribal war but in the heart of global competition between the USA, China, Europe for the geopolitical influence on the continent and for access to the immense mineral resourcessuch as cobalt and rare earths, vital for satiating the appetite of our neighbors and the West”, analyzed Jean-Léonard Touadi, journalist, teacher, author and former Italian-Congolese parliamentarian.
Looking beyond the argument of the geological scandal, the curse of riches and the ‘somalisation’ of the Congolese giant, Touadi underlined “the infinite capacity of the population to react to internal and external shocks, inventing and reinventing their daily survival every time, thus preventing the country from being erased from the map.”
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