On November 20, 2012, I was working from Bunia in Ituri Province to prepare a workshop that had been cancelled previously due to unrest (see Epulu attack). That first version of the workshop had been postponed and rescheduled for early December. In the lead-up to this second version of our workshop, the M23 rebellion in the hills of Masisi and Virunga National Park, and Rutshuru Territory, had intensified its aggression and threatened to attack Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu. I flew through Goma (flying through always requires about 2 nights when connecting from Kinshasa) around November 1st and visited my brother-in-law's family and my fiancée's cousin. They talked of increased insecurity in town including some late-night killings. A curfew had been instituted to counteract the violence, and the bustling city of the day-time became an eerily quiet ghost-town at night. I didn't prolong my stay as the restrictions and rumors didn't inspire much confidence in my. I wasn't trying my luck considering the events that I survived in June.
I needed to get to Bunia to plan the workshop and I had previously found Bunia to be a much more comfortable city than Goma. Contributing largely to this was the presence of a sizable UN (MONUSCO) contingent and many NGOs, including some Christian NGOs which I found to be very caring. The amalgam of these different groups and the lack of places at which to be posted, made one feel very familiar after just a few days. Being independent, I posted myself at MONUSCO House during the days, which was a restaurant and sports club available exclusively to NGOs, UN, and not just any schmoe off the street. They had more reliable internet than most hotels and the Indians who ran the place were very low-key. Similarly the Congolese waitresses who worked there were amiable and capable of joking easily. The grounds were fenced and contained a restaurant, gym, soccer field, and an outdoor eating area (paillotte). I felt comfortable working from there.
However, as news of M23's advance towards Goma (some 250 miles south of Bunia) continued, small effects were noticeable even in Bunia. The USAID staff who I had been in contact with regarding the workshop grew wary of travelling from Kinshasa to Bunia as nearly all humanitarian air traffic was routed through Goma and they were not allowed to travel on commercial lines. Then some cellphone networks developed small interruptions in service. People including the taximen (motorcycle taxi drivers) blamed this on the M23 cutting access. Whether this was true, or possibly the national army may have been sabotaging the networks to prevent rebel communication and civilian panic, I don't know.
On November 20, I got a message in from USAID which contained a State Department warning about the M23 threat, but which also included a dire warning about travel to the Ituri District which is where I was. I grew furious, thinking that State Department was over-reacting from its common risk-averse perspective and sent a message to my correspondents at USAID that there were not problems in Ituri or Bunia and the State Department should not mix all these issues together in the same pot. My agitation was due in part to envisioning a scenario where the workshop unravelled due to whatever was happening in Goma even if Bunia remained relatively stable. Nonetheless, things changed rapidly during the course of that day as the M23 breached line after line of defense converging upon Goma. The mood in Bunia remained relatively calm although everybody was thinking about Goma. Also, we were having difficulty communicating as interruptions in cellphone service became consistent. This prompted me to quickly visit the service provider Congo-Chine Telecom (CCT)'s shop to buy a SIM card and some credit so that I could communicate. The shop was VERY busy as many other people seemed to have the same idea. I waited for what could have been one hour for service, as individual vendors bought dozens of merchandise items.
After visiting the shop, I met up with some of my colleagues who were from Bunia for lunch at a local restaurant. One of them was on vacation, the other had left Epulu after all of the insecurity to resume living in Bunia. And for good reason, he told me his wife had given birth that very morning. What a day to be born...
After discussing all of the DRC's problems at length, we parted ways and I returned to MONUSCO House (MH) to read the latest news and to communicate with colleagues about the viability of our workshop planning. One message I received claimed that the M23 had taken Goma from the national army while the UN had stood by without engaging. Another said that rioting had begun in Kisangani and Beni, and asked how things were going in Bunia. Having just been out, I replied quickly that nothing seemed terribly amiss there but that I'd be careful. No sooner had I finished writing and I began to notice commotion outside of the main MH gate. It first started like a windstorm swirling around - the Indian workers ran out to see what was happening. They exclaimed excitedly that a mob was attacking the PPRD (ruling party) office down the street. I slammed my computer shut hastily as commotion and noise grew closer. By the time my computer was being shoved in to my backpack, rocks started to pelt the roof of MH. I watched in disbelief as a UN truck flew in reverse to block the MH entrance. Two South African peacekeepers hopped out and bolted into the entry. They aided the private MH security guard in slamming and securing the entry door as their vehicle went alight with flames from a Molotov cocktail. As I searched for a safe place inside the restaurant, I heard rocks pelting the roof in an ever-steadier tenor. It goes without saying, that the UN was now the object of the mob's anger. I found myself in yet another hairy situation...its DRC so things change quickly but still I had thought that I'd found one of the "safest" places possible - a UN compound - but it just so happened that I was there at the wrong time.
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