Mai-Mai raid village
2009-11-11 22:36
Mboko - No people walk the Mboko backstreets, just some bleating sheep break the silence after a lightning raid by Mai-Mai tribal fighters on this market town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
There were no warning signs. The rebels struck early on Monday morning as villagers slept, shooting through the calm with heavy weaponry and machine guns.
The majority of the 3 000 inhabitants living in Mboko, located between a green mountain chain and lake Tanganyika in Sud-Kivu province, fled from their homes to take refuge in neighbouring Burundi or nearby villages.
"It was around four or five in the morning when the first shots were heard," said Major Jeannot Yondo, commanding the Armed Forces of the DR Congo (FARDC) troops stationed in the village.
According to Yondo those responsible are ex-militia from the Congolese Mai-Mai, recently integrated in the army through a peace process in the east but intent on overturning the military command in this zone.
"The raid lasted till 11:00, but we pushed them back to the mountains, thanks to a technique we learnt from Pakistan's blue helmets," the FARDC officer said proudly, surrounded by four of his lieutenants.
Enemy repelled
The technique is used when the fighting is going on in the town and "involves repelling the enemy without trying to kill them", he explained, so as "to protect above all the people".
But as soon as the fighting stopped, nearly half the inhabitants deserted the village, taking refuge in the surrounding flatlands or crossing Lake Tanganyika into Burundi.
On Monday "we were told there were 133 families in Burundi, but today (Tuesday), we count over 500", the co-ordinator of a local rights group, Assumani Mayani told AFP.
"When there is fighting, it is normal for people to flee from their homes," the Congolese officer said, but he assured that "the Mai-Mai do not represent a threat anymore".
But Mboko does not seem to have recovered from the raid, which left one soldier from the Congolese army dead after he accidentally killed himself handling an RPG7 rocket.
Only a few villagers have stayed, reassured by the large FARDC military presence that now occupies the Mai-Mai's headquarters district, as a sign of victory.
"I experienced the fighting but I decided to stay," said one villager selling medications.
"Apparently the situation is calm, but the people believe the Mai-Mai will come back down from the mountains when they're hungry, to stock up. And they know how to stock up," Assumani explained, alluding to looting.
In the main commercial street, several shops are padlocked. A few people are still around, trying to make some money selling telephone cards.
In the meantime, international non-governmental organisations have designated Mboko a "risk zone" and have temporarily suspended all their activities in the region.