UPDF Leave Bleeding Hearts In Congo
Oct 02, 2002
Seated in a crawling position at the corner of the VIP lounge at Gbadolite airport was Annette, a 24-year-old Congolese woman whose round beautiful brown face was wet and eyes red from sobbing and fatigue.
By Emmy Allio in Gbadolite, Congo
The total number of women carrying UPDF soldiers’ babies in DRC is presently estimated to be 5,000
Seated in a crawling position at the corner of the VIP lounge at Gbadolite airport was Annette, a 24-year-old Congolese woman whose round beautiful brown face was wet and eyes red from sobbing and fatigue.
On her lap, asleep, was her daughter of eight months. Her first-born child, a boy of about three years watched UPDF soldiers dancing and cheering, with keen interest. As if to imitate his father, a UPDF soldier, the boy was clad in a camouflaged suit.
On seeing cameras, Annette quickly used a handkerchief to dry her face and looked down, shy.
In another corner, standing glued to the wall was another of the women – Salome. She had her baby strapped on her back and she too was crying. Not withstanding her flowery attire, and beauty, she looked a total mess.
Gbadolite airport terminal building and its former VIP lounge, though looted of all small fittings including electricity cables and switches, still looks glamourous. It’s walls have gold-plated diamond-shaped designs. The gold and diamond were former President Mobutu Sese Seko’s way of portraying his country’s wealth.
For Annette, Salome and over a 100 other women, Gbadolite airport is a torture zone. It is a place where planes land to rob them of their loved ones.
“They should just allow me to go with my man,†Salome said in Kiswahili, tainted with a lingala accent.
On the airport runway, it was disco and wild dancing by about 50 soldiers that caught the attention of on-lookers. These were soldiers from UPDF’s 35th battalion, the last group of the Ugandan troops to quit Congo.
Watching the UPDF sing their hearts out as they packed and rolled home were poorly dressed Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) soldiers, the new military force of the area.
At the height of the mission in Congo, Uganda deployed nearly 10,000 soldiers in Congo. Another estimated 1,000 Ugandan soldiers are still in the north-eastern Congolese town of Bunia on peace-keeping duty at the request of UN Secretary General Koffi Anan.
It is the same story from Kanyabayonga in North Kivu province to Isiro, near the Sudan border, and from Libenge on the Central African Republic border to Dongo on Congo Brazzaville border.
The UPDF has left behind broken hearts of pregnant women, women carrying babies and youthful belles. UPDF authorities and the rebel MLC leadership said each soldier should fund the transportation home of his wife or girlfriend.
The lucky Ugandan soldiers were those who pulled out from Kisangani because the army had helped them to transport home their wives.
“Nothing will stop me from transporting my wife home. She is the most loving person I have ever met in my life,†a soldier said.
Led by Bishop Ignars Matendo of Molegbe catholic diocese, all churches in Gbadolite last Sunday held special prayer sessions for the lives of the Ugandan soldiers.
Bishop Matendo said northern Congo has in the past few years witnessed occupation by forces from Rwanda, Chad and Kinshasa, but “the behaviour of the UPDF was exemplary.†He urged the Ugandan soldiers to go out as the messengers of love between Ugandans and the Congolese.
He said marriages in African culture are bridges that bond communities together .
“Tell your leaders in Uganda that we admired your people. True love now exists between us. Let our girls get married to you and the children you produce with them be the bridges that will bond us together,†the prelate told the press.
“We have lived with the Ugandan soldiers as brothers. We have enjoyed together and suffered together. We are now the same people. At times I see them in the churches and we share with them the blood of Jesus Christ,†Matendo said.
The bishop said the cries by the departing Ugandan soldiers and those they left behind explained the existing love.
The commander of the 35th battalion, Major Chris Kaddu, was overjoyed by the praises bestowed on them.
“I pray that the population here forgives our sins,†he said. “I am sure if we had committed crimes here, the population would not turn up to cheer us or cry for us,†he said.
One army officer in Gbadolite estimates the total number of women carrying Ugandan children in the former Uganda held territory in DRC to be about 5,000.
“This is a small figure. The number maybe higher since many of our soldiers had a habit of marrying in every town where they were deployed,†the officer said.
“We are appreciative to the Ugandan leadership for helping to built an army for the Congolese and to liberate us. If we had powers, we would have blocked their departure,†said Jean Pierre Bemba, leader of the rebel group that governs a third of Africa’s third largest country.
Bemba said the UPDF women issue is a “private affair†and his leadership had nothing to do with it. Similarly, the deputy UPDF spokesman, Capt. Felix Kulayigye said:
“We know the magnitude of the women issue. But tell me one country which has ever helped to transport home wives and girlfriends of its soldiers?â€
But the general talk is that the Gbadolite women picked a leaf from others in towns where the UPDF had been withdrawn. Over 100 of these women began the trek to Uganda weeks before their men were expected to fly home.
Sources said, funded by their men, these women left Gbadolite for Buta by bodaboda (bicycle transport). They are expected to connect to Isiro, then Watsa, Faradje and Ariwara, about 30kms across the border from Arua. The distance is about 1,000km and could take two weeks.
The traders and food vendors in Gbadolite were said to bid farewell to the men who live lavishly when they receive their meagre salaries. Traders, human rights groups and civil society groups said what they feared most is decline in the discipline of Bemba’s army.
With leadership wrangles breeding more violence and bloodshed, it may be that Annette and many Congolese women are glued to their Ugandan husbands for a greater reason – to escape hardship and abject poverty.
The love and war stories apart, there appears to be a thick cloud of fear and anxiety in the population in north and north-eastern Congo.
“We fear that the UPDF pull out is going to open a new chapter. We fear anarchy. The MLC army has no food and has no clothes. They survive on begging for food. In some villages, they rob and beat people,†said a priest in Gbadolite, a city which once hosted the richest and poorest in Congo.
Gbadolite city used to witness lorryfuls of money ferried every fortnight, on Mobutu orders, to be supplied to the population. A sizeable portion of the population today don clothes with large portraits of ‘Papa’, the amiable title referring to Mobutu. Many others say that Mobutu kept the country as one. Ends
The total number of women carrying UPDF soldiers’ babies in DRC is presently estimated to be 5,000
Seated in a crawling position at the corner of the VIP lounge at Gbadolite airport was Annette, a 24-year-old Congolese woman whose round beautiful brown face was wet and eyes red from sobbing and fatigue.
On her lap, asleep, was her daughter of eight months. Her first-born child, a boy of about three years watched UPDF soldiers dancing and cheering, with keen interest. As if to imitate his father, a UPDF soldier, the boy was clad in a camouflaged suit.
On seeing cameras, Annette quickly used a handkerchief to dry her face and looked down, shy.
In another corner, standing glued to the wall was another of the women – Salome. She had her baby strapped on her back and she too was crying. Not withstanding her flowery attire, and beauty, she looked a total mess.
Gbadolite airport terminal building and its former VIP lounge, though looted of all small fittings including electricity cables and switches, still looks glamourous. It’s walls have gold-plated diamond-shaped designs. The gold and diamond were former President Mobutu Sese Seko’s way of portraying his country’s wealth.
For Annette, Salome and over a 100 other women, Gbadolite airport is a torture zone. It is a place where planes land to rob them of their loved ones.
“They should just allow me to go with my man,†Salome said in Kiswahili, tainted with a lingala accent.
On the airport runway, it was disco and wild dancing by about 50 soldiers that caught the attention of on-lookers. These were soldiers from UPDF’s 35th battalion, the last group of the Ugandan troops to quit Congo.
Watching the UPDF sing their hearts out as they packed and rolled home were poorly dressed Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) soldiers, the new military force of the area.
At the height of the mission in Congo, Uganda deployed nearly 10,000 soldiers in Congo. Another estimated 1,000 Ugandan soldiers are still in the north-eastern Congolese town of Bunia on peace-keeping duty at the request of UN Secretary General Koffi Anan.
It is the same story from Kanyabayonga in North Kivu province to Isiro, near the Sudan border, and from Libenge on the Central African Republic border to Dongo on Congo Brazzaville border.
The UPDF has left behind broken hearts of pregnant women, women carrying babies and youthful belles. UPDF authorities and the rebel MLC leadership said each soldier should fund the transportation home of his wife or girlfriend.
The lucky Ugandan soldiers were those who pulled out from Kisangani because the army had helped them to transport home their wives.
“Nothing will stop me from transporting my wife home. She is the most loving person I have ever met in my life,†a soldier said.
Led by Bishop Ignars Matendo of Molegbe catholic diocese, all churches in Gbadolite last Sunday held special prayer sessions for the lives of the Ugandan soldiers.
Bishop Matendo said northern Congo has in the past few years witnessed occupation by forces from Rwanda, Chad and Kinshasa, but “the behaviour of the UPDF was exemplary.†He urged the Ugandan soldiers to go out as the messengers of love between Ugandans and the Congolese.
He said marriages in African culture are bridges that bond communities together .
“Tell your leaders in Uganda that we admired your people. True love now exists between us. Let our girls get married to you and the children you produce with them be the bridges that will bond us together,†the prelate told the press.
“We have lived with the Ugandan soldiers as brothers. We have enjoyed together and suffered together. We are now the same people. At times I see them in the churches and we share with them the blood of Jesus Christ,†Matendo said.
The bishop said the cries by the departing Ugandan soldiers and those they left behind explained the existing love.
The commander of the 35th battalion, Major Chris Kaddu, was overjoyed by the praises bestowed on them.
“I pray that the population here forgives our sins,†he said. “I am sure if we had committed crimes here, the population would not turn up to cheer us or cry for us,†he said.
One army officer in Gbadolite estimates the total number of women carrying Ugandan children in the former Uganda held territory in DRC to be about 5,000.
“This is a small figure. The number maybe higher since many of our soldiers had a habit of marrying in every town where they were deployed,†the officer said.
“We are appreciative to the Ugandan leadership for helping to built an army for the Congolese and to liberate us. If we had powers, we would have blocked their departure,†said Jean Pierre Bemba, leader of the rebel group that governs a third of Africa’s third largest country.
Bemba said the UPDF women issue is a “private affair†and his leadership had nothing to do with it. Similarly, the deputy UPDF spokesman, Capt. Felix Kulayigye said:
“We know the magnitude of the women issue. But tell me one country which has ever helped to transport home wives and girlfriends of its soldiers?â€
But the general talk is that the Gbadolite women picked a leaf from others in towns where the UPDF had been withdrawn. Over 100 of these women began the trek to Uganda weeks before their men were expected to fly home.
Sources said, funded by their men, these women left Gbadolite for Buta by bodaboda (bicycle transport). They are expected to connect to Isiro, then Watsa, Faradje and Ariwara, about 30kms across the border from Arua. The distance is about 1,000km and could take two weeks.
The traders and food vendors in Gbadolite were said to bid farewell to the men who live lavishly when they receive their meagre salaries. Traders, human rights groups and civil society groups said what they feared most is decline in the discipline of Bemba’s army.
With leadership wrangles breeding more violence and bloodshed, it may be that Annette and many Congolese women are glued to their Ugandan husbands for a greater reason – to escape hardship and abject poverty.
The love and war stories apart, there appears to be a thick cloud of fear and anxiety in the population in north and north-eastern Congo.
“We fear that the UPDF pull out is going to open a new chapter. We fear anarchy. The MLC army has no food and has no clothes. They survive on begging for food. In some villages, they rob and beat people,†said a priest in Gbadolite, a city which once hosted the richest and poorest in Congo.
Gbadolite city used to witness lorryfuls of money ferried every fortnight, on Mobutu orders, to be supplied to the population. A sizeable portion of the population today don clothes with large portraits of ‘Papa’, the amiable title referring to Mobutu. Many others say that Mobutu kept the country as one. Ends