In Congo's remote hills, a struggle to survive

Dinner interrupted by gunfire
Though many hoped Congo's 2006 elections would finally bring an end to violence, Congo's east has deteriorated deeper into chaos instead, with rebels expanding their territory and armed, vine-clad, machete-wielding militias still roaming lawless hills.

Mastaki said armed Rwandan Hutu militias have often came to his fields, taking manioc and maize — whatever food they wanted.

The unwieldy army itself is part of the problem. But some troops complain they are not paid enough to survive, and have to loot to get by.

Mastaki recounted how soldiers burst in on his family last week as they were eating dinner in Kanyabayonga, which until then had been spared the brunt of the latest war.

"We heard gunshots and thought the rebels were coming," Mastaki said. "But it was our own army shooting in the air."

Thousands fled into bush or nearby forests, exposed to boiling days, cold nights, and frequent downpours. Mastaki, his wife and three children fled with thousands of others to the hilltop U.N. base, forming a massive ring around it made of temporary shelters made of bamboo, leaves and plastic sheeting.

While a blue-turbaned Indian peacekeeper looked on from behind a sandbagged post, Mastaki counted what few possessions he had left: the clothes on his back, a thin foam mattress, four iron pots, a pair of plastic bowls and jugs, and a single utensil — a withered iron spoon.

Mastaki said he returned to his home to find it almost completely empty.

"Soldiers are still looting as we speak," he said Wednesday as a crowd of barefooted children gathered to listen. "Why is the U.N. here?"

Nowhere else to turn
Despite that oft-heard criticism, the mere presence of peacekeepers has given civilians with nowhere else to turn a kind of refuge. Mastaki put it his way: "At least nobody will shoot us here."

As he spoke, soldiers busily crisscrossed the red earth road that cuts through town, toting bundles of likely looted goods and live chickens. They passed doors of empty thatched homes that had been kicked in. Many sat on doorsteps of evacuated homes, rifles at their feet, their wives cooking meals in open pots.

No U.N. presence was visible in the town, and Mastaki said most people women dared not walk through town for fear of being raped.

Outside another of the U.N. base's gates, a pair of men tried to profit from the desperation, charging a fee for the luxury of charging cell phone, vital connections to the outside world. About 70 phones were plugged into seven dusty power strips connected to a small rumbling generator.

This week, refugees have heard sporadic volleys of gunfire, either from drunk soldiers or fighting further away in the hills.

"We've been reduced to begging," Mastaki said. "I just want to go home."

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