Situation update

According to a recent telephone conversation with Rev. Ilumbe last Thursday, the situation is better but still very difficult.

Here is the latest information from Oskar Pekombe from the General Office of the Disciples of Christ in Congo, which is located in Mbandaka.

The security situation is still not back to normal. People do not leave their houses after dark. The soldiers sent to protect the people are guilty of much of the on-going violence. Sunday, April 18, there was a lot of fighting around Bolenge as soldiers acted on false information that the Enyele were in the area. The Bolenge hospital, supported by the Disciples, was quite busy treating numerous people who were wounded in the fighting. At least two persons affiliated with the church, a boy and a pregnant woman, were shot. The boy was killed; the mother was operated on in the Bolenge hospital, but both she and the fetus died.

Humanitarian organizations, including Doctors without Borders, have arrived to help care for those wounded in the fighting. Areas from which Mbandaka normally receives its food supply are under control of the military, and people are afraid to bring their agricultural
products to market for fear of being robbed by the soldiers.
Consequently, the price of food is mercilessly high. Other retailers are also afraid to be open for business. The UN is returning and there is a request to declare the city a disaster area, since there is so little food and the prices are so high that no one can buy it.

Rev. Bonanga, General Secretariate for the CDCC, has returned from Boende to Mbandaka, but had to travel through Kishasa to reach the city.

The Enyele tribe lives in an area north of Mbandaka called Kungu. A local dispute escalated and spilled over to Bomongo, just upriver from Equateur province. Currently the term is used to refer to the rebel group fighting the government both locally and nationally. The movement is not at all defined, making it even more difficult to deal with the fighting.