Kalonge: hunger overwhelms the displaced

Approximately four thousand households were displaced Kalonge in Kalehe, following the upsurge in armed conflicts since January 2012. They came from Shabunda, Kalehe and Kabare.

These families are living in difficult conditions. Some are under-housed by host families and others spend the nights in small houses from straw, or in tents, tarpaulins, given by a humanitarian NGO, International Rescue Committee IRC. They are many, men, women and children, suffering from hunger, cold, and homeless.
They reach out to just anybody to find any answer.

Also, nature seems hell-bent against this population: hail rains fell in March, April and May, destroying the plants. A mosaic tackled the cassava plant, abundant food resource in the medium; which led to a general lack of productivity. Thus, neither the host families, or families displaced seem to know what to do.

Bukavu DRCongo: Female carriers ply trade as human pack horses, a vestige of war years

Cesarine Maninga carrying a load of charcoal,

which she sells at a local market in

Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Years of war — when men were off at

battle, killed or returned to find no work

— gave eastern Congo its legions of female

bearers. ‘‘I don’t have a choice,’’

Ms. Maninga said, bitter resignation in

her voice. ‘‘I have to feed my family.’’

It’s around 6 in the morning and the sun is slowly rising, a clear sign that Cesarine Maninga must leave. In one practiced movement, she straps a 50-kilogram sack of charcoal to her back, tosses the rough rope around her head and trudges off toward Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Ms. Maninga, 43, is just one of hundreds of women who ply this trade each day, lugging loads of up to 100 kilograms, or 220 pounds. On this morning, she hopes to sell makala — dry charcoal used for heating and cooking. She will walk almost 10 kilometers, or about six miles, with the heavy load, a trek she makes at least twice a week. ‘‘I don’t have a choice,’’ she said, bitter

resignation in her voice. ‘‘I have to feed my family’’ — 11 children, and an unemployed husband. Women like Ms. Maninga are a common sight on the streets of Bukavu, striking not for their looks but for the outsize burdens they carry. In French, they are les femmes transporteuses; in Kiswahili, they are called babeba mizigo. Whatever the language, the job is the same: Female carriers are human pack horses. Several international surveys haverated Democratic Republic of Congo as the world’s worst place to be a woman. Often, these studies focus on gender violence. According to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health last year, 48 Congolese women are raped every hour. For years, various militia and rebel groups have used rape as a weapon to destroy communities. Across eastern Congo during these years of war, women have acquired an added burden, that of bearing heavy loads. Horses, donkeys and trucks are too expensive, residents say. The roads, if any, are so bad that the few miles between Ms. Maninga’s mountain shack and Bukavu are nearly impassable, except on foot.