The Epulu attack: dawn on Sunday, June 24:

The first five hours: 5:00 - 10:00 am - 24 June 2012

On Saturday, June 23, I returned to Epulu with my boss, arriving after 7 pm, by which time it was already dark. I had been away for almost 3 weeks and was very excited to be back at home. I hoped to easily resume my life back at the research center, albeit for only a few days before returning to Bunia, where I had come.

My maman had left dinner on the table for me and after eating well, I went to Robert’s house to watch a football match and then returned to my house when I went to sleep at about 1030pm. I was very tired so sleep came easily and I did not awaken at all during the night. At about 430ish, I woke up with a start and then asked myself, why did I just wake up? Usually when I awake at that time, it is because it is the coldest time of the night, I have to use the toilet, or I’ve just come out of a deep sleep, or a combination thereof. None of these applied and I quickly drifted back to sleep.

But just a few minutes later, I awoke to what sounded like a grand finale of fireworks, which I think was the first volley of gunfire launched, which continued with a lot of strength for at least 15 minutes. As soon as I processed the noise, I knew immediately that the ICCN station was being attacked by the Mai-Mai rebels of Morgan. My first reaction was to just sit on my bed and I started to shiver and pray. This exchange of fire continued for many minutes and I started to imagine where the gunfire was coming from. I imagined that the rebels were on our side of the bridge (Eboyo) but were shooting from the bridge at the ICCN who are posted at the other side of the bridge (Epulu). I stayed in my house and didn’t look out of the windows at all, because I didn’t want anyone to know I was there. At one point, Papa Michel, the old night watchmen, walked past the house, and I called to him without opening the door. I asked him “qu’est-ce qui se passe?”. He replied in a nonchalant manner, “je ne sais pas”. A few minutes later, Michel passed behind my house again and I tried to slip him a note to transmit to Robert, my boss, but he didn’t understand what I was trying to do. Not wanting him to linger by my house to signal my presence, I shooed him off.

The shooting continued and I tried to triangulate its position as it started to disperse and diminish. I imagined that the exchange of gunfire had backed the rebels into the forest where I often go bird-watching. I imagined that they had infiltrated from this forested area, as the rest of the station area is surrounded by village. The shooting died out a bit and seemed to be a bit more random. It was difficult to know what was happening. Imagining that they were in the forest and the park guards were pursuing them, this helped explain that there was hardly any exchange of gunfire.

By 6:30, after 1 ½ hours of gunfire, it largely ceased. I imagined that the WCS chauffeur would come as soon as it had completely stopped, so I started to pack my bags up. They had just been unpacked the night before. I drew the curtains back a little bit to let in some light but I stayed inside my house. With all the fright, I had to urinate several times, so I had used an empty juice box to avoid having to go out to my toilet. I ate nothing so that new food wouldn’t force me to have to invent an inside toilet!

After packing my bags, I opened my computer and typed some emails that I would send as soon as I could get a connection. I saw my neighbor Crispin outside of his house, but decided not to move out of the house or to signal to him, but I kept an eye on his house, which was closer to the road and also to the station.

Suddenly heavy gunfire erupted again from the station area and I realized that the rebels had not slunk off into the forest as I had hoped. A motorbike could be heard crossing the bridge and suddenly 3 loud gunshots were heard from that same area. A few minutes later, Baraka came out of Crispin’s house and started running back towards his house. I knew from his habit, that he would run directly behind my house, so as his footsteps approached the back of my house, I whistled to him and he came into my house. I said, what in the world is going on? Where is Robert? What are we going to do? He didn’t have any immediate responses and told me that he needed to go but that he’d return so that we could make a plan. As he left, I begged him to come back, because I wasn’t sure if he would really come. After he left, I got a bit nervous that he was going to panic and run rather than returning. After just a few long minutes, Baraka and Crispin came to my house with the night watchman, Michel. We were there to decide upon a plan and this made me realize the gravity of the situation. We were going to have to flee our houses into an unknown situation. Where would we go? How long would we be there? I thought of death, of my girlfriend, and started to cry. This was the first time that I felt really desperate. Baraka told me to be strong and comforted me and told me that we were not going to die.

After a minute, I gathered my wits and started talking. These guys said that Michel would lead us towards an area at the back of our compound from where we could flee. We would try to hide ourselves from everybody, even villagers, as we could all be considered “high-value” targets for the attackers. I changed quickly into pants and emptied one of my backpacks which I had just hastily packed. It didn’t make sense to carry a lot of stuff while fleeing. So I just left a few random things like a towel, binoculars, and a pair of shorts; (note: no rainjacket). I grabbed a half-full water bottle and the only food I could; one papaya and one lime. The other guys urged me to hurry as I was still shuffling stuff around tying my shoes as they were already on their way out the door. I yelled at them to wait for me, I wanted us to be together so that we could act tactically, and I was not going to be left behind. Michel led us out of the house in total silence and each of us covered our heads as we walked briskly. There was absolutely no one around, and the only four people who I had seen that day were together.

We got behind Baraka’s house and found some random path which led into the thick fallows which form an impenetrable boundary between the forest and the fields, both of which are much easier to move through. However, I knew that this zone was where we needed to be at the moment. We could move into the forest which lined the river, but it could be more dangerous, as we didn’t know what was lurking there, or if we could be seen from the other side of the river.

We didn’t follow any paths, we just moved at random through a path of least resistance. Crispin led us through a grassy field then through thick pole-like weeds which became totally impenetrable, and then I realized that Papa Michel was no longer with us. This surprised me because he was supposedly the one to lead us. However, being an old man, it made little sense that he’d lead us, but at least he’d stay with us, but he was nowhere to be seen and it seemed as though he might have turned back.

I was positive that we wouldn’t be spotted in this type of habitat. One of my previous bird-watching walks had taken me into this area and resulted in exasperation, as I got stuck again and again in thick brush or weeds before finally emerging into some villager’s fields. We did the same this time around and emerged onto one of the main paths out from our small village, Eboyo, to its agricultural zone, which is a huge mosaic of fields, fallow, bush, and forest. After marching on it for a little while, Baraka made the point that we should deviate, because our current path would make us very easy to spot. We debated in whispers how far out we should go and where we actually would want to stop, whether at a hut or in a field. We quickly nixed the idea of finding a hut, and kept moving, but opted to take a very minor path. We kept moving away, without seeing or hearing a soul. After an hour or so of walking, we arrived at a place where we felt we could stop. It was a tiny field of maize, surrounded by bush and forest on each side. The path didn’t really seem to lead anywhere so we felt like we could sit in the corner of the field which had a view of the path but which was also hidden.

We sat, rested, and started to chat a little bit. It was about 10:00 am on Sunday and we were about 2 km from our concession. I asked where Papa Michel had gone and they said he’d turned back. As we settled down, sporadic gunshots continued and I tried to ascertain their location. They spread out and soon we were sure that gunshots were on both sides of the river. This made me really fear for Papa Michel; I began to imagine the worst. Where had he gone? Had he returned to “defend” our concession? Were those gunshots coming from our concession? Where was he going to hide? Was he still safe?

We began to hypothesize about what had happened and what was going on. They told me that the motorbike which had crossed the bridge had had 3 rebels on it, naked, and they had fired three shots.