DR Congo: “The first people who had fled had reported my death on the radio.”

18 November 2008

D. is married and has ten children, he has been robbed four times by LRA rebels. “This time,” he says, “they went too far, they took everything: my clothes, my rice and even my chickens, they just spared my life…”

“I live in Bayote, a village. On 17 October, as I was holding a meeting in my office at the school, I was told that the LRA had entered the village. I went straight home to hide whatever I could, it has been common knowledge for a long time that the LRA loot everything. I bundled all my children’s clothes, put them on the bike and told my son to take the lot in the field. He had barely left when the LRA arrived at my door. They threatened me and ordered me to sit on the floor. There were ten of them, one pointed his rifle at me, two stayed in the street and the remaining seven entered my hut. Luckily my wife and all the children were in the fields.

The LRA started looting my hut: clothes, machete, pots and pans… they were looking for the money and bicycles. The one who was pointing his gun at me ordered me to get up and out of my hut. Once in the street I realised that each of the two soldiers who had stayed outside held a group of youngsters tied together by a rope to their neck and ankle preventing them from moving apart from each other: each and everyone of them was carrying a share of the looted booty on his head.

When the seven LRA rebels left my hut, incensed by not having found much they started taking my clothes off: one took my shirt, another my belt, another one my shoes and the last one wanted my trousers that I was holding with both hands to prevent them from dropping to the ground. As I begged him not to leave me naked he started beating me very hard with a stick and led me behind a hut next to the school. There he took my trousers away, hit me hard on the back forcing me to flee in the forest stark naked. I ran not knowing where, I was terrified and lost.

By chance after a while, possibly two hours, I arrived near a rice paddy and found the trail used by the farmer to walk to the village, I followed it to the village chapel which I reached in mid-afternoon. Hiding behind a coffee tree I shouted for help to get some clothes.

Everyone was surprised to see me. They thought I was dead as the LRA usually hit people on the back of the neck killing them before they can shout. The news of my death had been quickly announced and even in Dungu, the first people who had fled had reported my death on the radio.

The LRA said the following when they left the village: “What we did was nothing, we’ll be back…”
Therefore, we decided to flee. Like others I joined my family, which was hiding in the fields. We got together to leave with other families. Everyone was scared: would they come back in the evening? Would they find us in the fields?

Early in the morning I put my four youngest children and some clothes on the bicycle and pushing it I moved towards Ngilima, 45 km away. My wife stayed behind with the other children in a hideout near the field. After travelling 30 km the children were exhausted, as the night fell we slept on the roadside, fortunately it didn’t rain.

We arrived in Ngilima, where I have a small plot, on Friday only. I left the children with some friends to return to the field to pick up my wife. I needed another three days to go back and return with my wife and some food.

We considered staying in Ngilima, however, we heard that the LRA was heading for Ngilima. All the neighbours left and we did too. We have now been staying with my in-laws in Dungu since Friday. We do not have any more food, but we are being helped. What worries us now are fresh rumours: are they coming here too, to Dungu…?”