DanChurchAid
Humanitarian Mine Action
Having a Plan A just isn’t enough here
The quiet humanitarian disaster. The African equivalent to a World War. The front yard to Hell. Few countries have as bad a reputation as DR Congo. Still, Line Brylle wouldn’t mind taking the first plane back to the great country of Central Africa.
|
| Mine clearing site in DR Congo. Photo: DCA |
“Congo is crazy and fantastic at the same time. So many terrible and incomprehensible things happen. But it is also an incredibly beautiful and fertile country with an open and friendly population”, the 32 year old anthropologist explains.
Line Brylle lived and worked in Kalemie in the eastern part of the country where DanChurchAid has its main office. Along with the Mine Risk Education Team, she went into the bush to train the team in identifying and collecting data about landmines. Subsequently, this task was followed up by a Mine Clearance Team who made sure that the highly dangerous items were removed and destroyed.
Congo has been tormented by internal conflicts and war for years, the last of which ended in 2003. Therefore everything ranging from landmines and grenades to rockets and bombs lay scattered over large areas. This makes it difficult for the farmers to work in the field and hinders refugees in returning home.
Difficult Logistics
The fighting has contributed to the collapse of Congo’s infrastructure. This constantly has to be taken into account;
“Everyday we meet new challenges. Having a Plan A just isn’t enough here. You also have to have a plan B, C, D and E. For instance, you may have planned a trip taking the team into the field. Then you suddenly realize that there is no more petrol in the town and that it may take days before any will arrive”, Line Brylle explains. And the difficulties do not stop even if the petrol tank is full.
“The so called roads look nothing like real roads. Therefore most transport takes place using two- or four-wheeled motorbikes. Still, it may take 10 hours to drive 200 kilometres and in the rainy season it takes even longer.”
| Danchurchaid in DR Congo |
|---|
|
As Kalemie is situated on the bank of the Lake Tanganyika, transport to the mine fields often takes place using speedboats. And Line Brylle assures us that transport, whether by land or water, can exhaust even the toughest person.
“Your behind gets sore whether you travel by motorbike or speedboat. And actually also if you just work at the office, because here all chairs are wooden,” Line Brylle laughs. She now thinks that this is nothing compared to what the local population has to put up with in their everyday lives. “If someone becomes ill, they will often have to walk 30 miles to the nearest clinic which may not even have any kind of medicine. And if they want to take the train, they never know if it will depart the next day or in two month’s time.”
Outrageous atrocities
Line Brylle never felt unsafe during the two years she lived in DR Congo. And in Kalemie she could without any problems drive around on her AG 100 Yamaha visiting her local friends. She has however met a lot of people who have been very closely affected by the war. One thing that has made the greatest impression on her is the meeting in a hospital with women who have got fistula. It is a very painful condition with a perforation between vagina and bladder or vagina and rectum caused by extremely brutal rape.
“Between 300 and 400 women at all ages were admitted to hospital every month. The youngest one I met was only 8 years old”, says Line Brylle.
Even though the war is over, atrocities are still committed against women. Militias are still fighting in the northern part of the country and 10.000 people are still dying from hunger and disease every month. However, on a good day Line Brylle can still find hope among the population.
“People have started building houses. There are more goods on the shelves. And some of those who fled to Zambia and Tanzania we have now seen sailing back across the lake.”
DR Congo is not for control freaks, Lene Brylle assures us.
Sometimes it is easier to take the car along the waterway than along the country road.
By Anette Krarup
HMA news
RSS feed
