Foreign Policy recently published an excellent photo slideshow by journalist Michael Kavanagh titled "Portraits of Insecurity" which hammers home the point that "eastern Congo’s future is still uncertain." Kavanagh’s photos show why Congolese people in North Kivu province have good reason to remain wary of the recent developments which have been heralded by some as positive steps toward peace in the East. But as Enough’s Goma-based researcher Rebecca Feeley recently noted on our blog:
For the war-weary Congolese people of North Kivu province…, the shifted—and still shifting—alliances of eastern Congo’s rebel groups may be a cause for more fear and more insecurity. But recent developments…may be early signal of more peaceful winds to come—with a very large caveat. Tremendous work still remains to be done if the rhetoric of success is to become a lasting reality.
Kavanagh concludes his slideshow on perhaps an even more skeptical note:
As the dubious integration process moves ahead and the FDLR continues its revenge attacks, many in eastern Congo are in no different place than they were before the Rwandan-Congolese alliance began – displaced, confused, and deeply uncertain about their future.
N.B.: Also from Foreign Policy, don’t miss this interesting pair of op-eds on identity, nationalism, and sovereignty in D.R. Congo; you might think you’ve had enough of these topics, but it only takes reading a snippet of acclaimed journalist Michela Wrong’s writings on Congo to remember that all bets are off when applying such theories to the endless complexities of Congo.
Photo: An FDLR rebel crouches in the hills outside Pinga, by Michael Kavanagh for Foreign Policy