It's Always The Money

It's the economy, stupid, or at least it's the money when it comes to the question of war and peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That's the conclusion drawn by Global Witness, who says attempts to keep the fragile peace program alive are being fractured by armed groups' involvement in tin and gold mining. Just as I wrote in Heart of Diamonds, greed drives war in the Congo.

Global Witness research this summer uncovered substantial evidence of exploitation and trade of minerals in North and South Kivu, scenes of renewed fighting in recent weeks. Armed militias and rebel groups are involved, as are units and commanders of the FARDC, the Congolese national army, according to the human rights group.

The FDLR, a Rwandan Hutu force under the command of leaders who allegedly participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, is scrabbling for control of mines in the region as well. The FDLR controls swathes of territory where gold and cassiterite (tin ore) mines are located in the territories of Shabunda, Mwenga, Walungu, Uvira and Fizi.

According to Patrick Alley, director of Global Witness, "Our researchers saw FDLR members openly selling cassiterite in South Kivu. The FDLR then use the profits to obtain other supplies and keep their movement alive. They have set up such efficient and lucrative business networks that they have little incentive to leave."

Even though Congolese army brigades (FARDC) have been sent to the region to counter the FDLR, they are apparently just participating in the systematic pillage.

"Local residents told us that the FARDC are doing exactly the same thing as the FDLR: taking over the mines, forcing civilians to work for them or to hand over their mineral production and extorting taxes," says Alley.

There have also been frequent reports that members of the FARDC supply the FDLR with arms, ammunition, and even uniforms.

FARDC units control the largeset cassiterite mine in North Kivu at Bisie, as well as gold and cassiterite mines in Mushinga and Tubimbi. Some of these army units were formerly rebels who were supposedly trained and integrated into the official Congolese army through the brassage program designed to give them an incentive to protect and participate in civil society. Apparently, they prefer the money.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

DRC Attacks Ugandan Rebels

The Congolese army attacked the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the northeastern DRC last week, sending several hundred troops to Dungu, which lies close to the border with Sudan. The action, which was intended to protect civilians from the LRA, was supported logistically by the UN mission in the DRC, MONUC.

Military action in the DRC isn't confined to one front or just one set of adversaries. More than 20 official armies, rebel militias, and armed gangs operate in the eastern and northeastern provinces alone. Atrocities are committed and shots are heard from the border with Sudan in the northeast to Angola in the southwest as the epic struggle for control of the Congo's resources continues just as it was described in my novel, Heart of Diamonds.

Civilians are targeted for abuse as the warring factions seize regions they can tax or otherwise extort.

"Our investigations show that there were eight killings, 52 abductions, of which 11 cases involved girls under the age of 18, and nine rapes," said Benoit Kinalebu, a Catholic priest and head of the Dungu branch of the Justice and Peace Commission.

The offenses were reportedly committed between August 2007 and July 2008.

LRA leader Joseph Kony is under indictment by the International Criminal Court for human rights abuses during his ongoing fight with the Ugandan government. Kony has been hiding in the mountainous area on the edge of Garamba national park in the DRC, using it as a base of operations to send raiding parties into Uganda. The LRA leader was meant to have signed a comprehensive peace agreement with the Ugandan government in April 2008, but he failed to show up for the ceremony.

Kony was a no-show in the southern Sudanese jungle town of Ri-Kwangba on September 6, where he was again supposed to sign the agreement already inked by the Ugandan government.

The Ugandan government expressed appreciation for the DRC's action.

"Our view is that the LRA can never engage in any meaningful peace process if they don't have pressure behind them," said Ugandan army spokesman Major Paddy Ankunda.

The spill-over of long-running conflicts within neighboring countries like Uganda, Rwanda, and Sudan continue to undermine efforts to create a peaceful, stable Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

On The Ground in Goma

A fascinating letter I received recently from an informed reader who heard about Heart of Diamonds

Dear Dave,

I intend to go right out tomorrow and buy your book. Having spent some time in Goma on a fact finding trip for Global Strategies for HIV Prevention in its work against gender based violence—-call it rape—-it is clear to me that the lust for precious metals and gems carries with it the need to subjugate, enslave, rape and kill men women and children, thus intimidating and destroying whole communities. The data we have gathered indicates that up to 60 percent of the rapists (Congolese soldiers, police and Hutu fugitives from justice) are HIV positive so not only is the violence tearing apart communities but it is infecting thousands of women in a delayed but certain genocide. (2000 women reported being raped in June 2008 in North Kivu Province and it is likely that at least that many more were raped but are fearful of the consequences were they to complain.)

Anyway, I look forward to reading your book. However terrible you may have painted conditions, actual conditions are probably even worse than you can imagine. I hope your book helps spread the word. The Congo government is lame, doing nothing, and the atmosphere of impunity encourages the epidemic of violence and rape. The resolutions passed by the UN Security Council, pending in the US Senate, and the “blood coltan” bill in the Senate are good for appearances, but the resolutions have not resulted in any changes, and the high tech lobbyists will never let the blood coltan bill pass.

Kerry Gough, Counsel and Director, Global strategies for HIV Prevention (Gender Justice)

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Has Third Congo War Begun?

Government troops struck rebel forces this week in Rutshuru district as tensions continue to escalate in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In events that could have been taken from my novel Heart of Diamonds, a large, as yet uncounted, number of civilians were forced to flee the village of Ntamugenga and the surrounding area as the DRC army retook the village from renegade general Laurent Nkunda, who leads the Rwanda-backed CNDP.

MONUC Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich reported that there was also some fighting in the Rugari region. MONUC, the UN peacekeeping force in the country, has repeatedly called on both the government and rebel forces to stand down and honor the January agreement known as the Goma Accords, but tension continues to build.

On the same day as the fighting in Ntamugenga, at least one person was wounded and a MONUC vehicle was destroyed during a demonstration against the peacekeepers in the town of Rutshuru. One witness said the town's residents wanted the UN to repel Nkunda's forces rather than simply maintain a buffer zone between the two sides.

In another regional hot spot, the DRC closed Bunagana, the country's border post with Uganda, after Nkunda's forces captured immigration officials there. Hundreds of trucks and passengers service vehicles backed up on the Ugandan side of the border, as uncertainty loomed. It is believed that the Congolese governement in Kinshasa closed the border point to deny food supplies to Nkunda's troops from Ugandan traders in Kisoro.

The Goma Accords were intended to create a "cooling down" period so that the 20-some-odd groups that signed them could resolve differences without violence. The two largest groups, the DRC Army (the FARDC) and Nkunda's breakaway force (CNDP), seem to have discarded the agreement and resumed maneuvers that will lead to a resumption of full-fledged war.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Greed Creates Congo Crisis

Unadulterated greed created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the aftermath of the Second Congo War. My fictional treatment of the Congo’s ongoing strife in Heart of Diamonds points to lust for the nation’s riches as the cause of over five million deaths since 1998.

We shouldn’t even pretend that conflicting ideologies or ethnic rivalries are the causes of this crisis. Those are nothing more than convenient excuses for the looting and pillaging that threatens to destroy the DRC.

In my novel, Heart of Diamonds, I use a diamond smuggling scheme to represent the fight for control of the DRC’s gold, timber, uranium, copper, coltan, and other natural resources. An intricate plot involving an American televangelist, the President of the DRC, and the White House reflects the convoluted relationships of the factions involved in the struggle. The book's heroine, Valerie Grey, is a TV journalist who uncovers the scheme and fights to expose it to the world.

I believe that ethnic conflicts like those between the Tsutis and Hutus that spilled over from Rwanda and between the Hema and Lindu are fronts for war lords looking to control territory in the DRC where they can exploit natural resources. Many of those militias receive support—-sometimes openly—-from governments or rebel factions in neighboring countries.

Heart of Diamonds is a work of fiction, but it is based on actual events in the most deadly conflict since World War II. I drew heavily on news accounts of rape as a weapon of terror, child soldiers, widespread corruption at all levels of government, and the very sad plight of the hundreds of thousands of refugees from the violence that continues to wrack the nation.

Heart of Diamonds is my third book, but my first foray into the thriller genre. I wanted to write something that captures the vibrancy and complexity of Africa, and a suspenseful adventure framed against the endless war in the DRC seemed like the perfect approach.

Since I started writing the book, there have been glimmers of hope in the situation. But violence continues and hundreds of thousands of people are still suffering as refugees. Peace and prosperity are still a long way away. I hope Heart of Diamonds will help draw attention to the crisis.

Heart of Diamonds was published by Kunati Books, named Independent Publisher of the Year at the 2008 Book Expo America.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Labor Day Marked By Congo Violence

Mortar and grenade blasts echo through the mountains where I spent Labor Day weekend last year. Recently, fresh fighting broke out between the Congolese Army and rebels under renegade commander Luarent Nkunda. Just a year ago, I was wandering around that region on the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda researching Heart of Diamonds. At the time, there was a lull in the fighting, although skirmishes had been reported farther north and west. Today, it looks like the Third Congo War is about to erupt.

Captain Tabaro Kiconco, a spokesman for the Ugandan Second Army Division, says they have stepped up already-heightened security and surveillance on the border near where I was camped a year ago. Several Ugandan rebel groups operating from eastern DRC use the tense security situation in the region to launch raids across the border.

The recent fighting in North Kivu in the DRC is the first major clash between forces since the Goma accords were signed in January, 2008, when some twenty-odd insurgent groups, gangs, and rebel factions agreed to a ceasefire under the aegis of the UN’s peacekeeping force, MONUC. Since then, the armed groups, including Nkunda’s breakaway army, have continued to attack civilians and loot the countryside, causing one of the most severe humanitarian crisis in the region since the Second Congo War officially ended in 2003. Estimates of the number of displaced civilians run as high as a quarter million people.

Tensions have been mounting in past weeks, with DRC forces (the FARDC) increasing troop strength while Nkunda’s CNDP ( National Congress for the Defence of the People) maneuvered to gain control of more territory. Western diplomats warned last month that the situation in the east of the DRC was becoming increasingly tense as various groups rearmed. The FARDC and CNDP blamed each other for starting the fighting which broke out in the village of Kanombe about 30 miles north of Goma and spread to several other towns.

MONUC said it has sent armored vehicles to patrol the region and increased contact with both sides to encourage an end to the latest clashes. It might seem that the 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force would be easily dominant, but there are nearly two dozen insurgent groups in the region and many of the rebel forces receive outside help. Nkunda’s army, for example, has the near-overt backing of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who uses them as a proxy force to battle the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which includes many original members of the Interahamwe that carried out the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

More than five million people have been killed in the Congo since 1998 according to the International Rescue Committee. Peace treaties have been signed, but there is no end in sight.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Rape Terror Report Updated

Anderson Cooper's report on CBS TV's Sixty Minutes reflects stories like those told in Heart of Diamonds. The original episode aired in January, but was updated in August. The report bears watching because it's a story that needs to be told again and again until the brutality stops in the Congo.



Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Congo Doctors Strike

Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and setting for many scenes in Heart of Diamonds, is a metropolis of 8,000,000 people served by a dozen public hospitals and 2,700 doctors. Those doctors went on strike this week.

The cause was low salaries. Doctors in public hospitals earn about 120,000 Congolese francs per month, including bonuses. That works out to about $216, or roughly the price of a 15-minute office visit to a doctor in America.

A spokesman for Synamed, the union representing the physicians, accused the government of reneging on an agreement to provide an extra $3.6 million for salary increases in July following a previous strike in January. "Nothing has been done since, so we have decided to begin a general strike from today," said Synamed chief Mankoy Badjoky on Monday. The strike will continue until "the government honors its commitments," Badjoky added. Nearly all doctors in Kinshasa took part in the strike this week while it was also observed in other cities.

The doctors are demanding a salary of 320,000 Congolese francs ($580) per month as well as payment of a risk bonus and permanent appointments for doctors with temporary employment.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Congo Rainforest Irony

The irony was leafy green and growing like a giant red mahogany tree as conflicting reports on logging in the Congo were released on the same day this month. In one, The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification has now been achieved for forestry operations on nearly 3 million acres in the Congo River Basin. In the other, a World Bank-backed review of all timber contracts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) said that more than three quarters of its logging deals should be canceled for not meeting necessary standards.

Ecologists calling for more logging? Government demanding a halt? It's the kind of news that makes the Congo endlessly fascinating.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to 358-million acres of rainforest, the world’s second-largest tract of oxygen-producing, air-scrubbing greenery. It’s a rich resource among the many natural assets (like diamonds, the prize at the center of Heart of Diamonds, my novel of the Congo) that have attracted exploiters from all over the globe for over a hundred years. According to Greenpeace, more than 40% of it will disappear before timber industry chainsaws by 2050.

It doesn’t have to happen, of course, and steps are being taken to prevent an ecological and economic disaster of those proportions. Unlike diamonds, trees are a sustainable resource. Careful management of forests can provide fuel, lumber, and pulp—thus generating jobs, tax revenues, and economic stimulus to a country that sorely needs them—while maintaining the environmentally-critical forest itself for the long term. That’s what the FSC certification is supposed to encourage. Laurent Somé, WWF Central Africa Regional Programme Office (CARPO)'s Representative, says

"WWF is convinced that the adoption of responsible forestry schemes by logging companies will contribute greatly to the conservation of the Congo Basin forests and towards improving the national economy and also improve the livelihoods of local communities."

The critical element is governmental oversight of logging concessions to insure that logging companies practice sustainable forestry while living up to contracts that provide tax revenues to build desperately-needed roads, schools, and hospitals. The DRC review of the technical and legal aspects of 156 logging deals, mostly signed during a 1998-2003 war and subsequent corruption-plagued interim government, showed that only 29 of the contracts met the minimum standards required.

Among the contracts recommended for cancellation are 10 of 16 belonging to Portuguese-owned Sodefor, a unit of NST. Siforco, a subsidiary of Germany's Danzer Group, had three of its nine deals highlighted as corrupt while Safbois found both of its contracts on the cancellation list. Together the three companies account for more than 66 percent of all timber exported from Congo.

Many of the deals were signed despite a moratorium on logging contracts imposed by the DRC in 2002. According to Greenpeace, concessions were bought for pennies and tax and royalty payments avoided by manipulation of records, off-shore accounting shenanigans, and under-reporting of timber harvests. The DRC’s ability to bring the industry under control will be a key determinant of the Congo’s economic future.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Olympic Team Gives Hope To Child Soldiers

Lopez Lomong, the Sudanese "lost boy" who led 600 American athletes onto the field during the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, could be Christophe, one of the main characters in Heart of Diamonds, my novel of scandal, love and death in the Congo. Lomong’s story had a happy, triumphal ending; Christophe’s tale is more typical of the thousands of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other nations where boys and girls are kidnapped, drugged, brainwashed, and bullied into becoming killers, rapists, and sex slaves.

In 1991, Lomong fled the Sudan at the age of six after having been separated from his parents by the civil war between the Arab north and Christian south that left two million dead in his still-deeply-troubled native land. He was one of the "lost boys" who trekked on foot for hundreds of miles, many dying of starvation and even lion attacks as they made their way to refugee camps in Kenya. In 2001, he was one of the 4,000 boys resettled in the United States.

Lomong is now an American citizen, a successful middle-distance runner, who was chosen by his teammates to carry the Stars and Stripes in the parade of nations during the opening ceremonies in Beijing. Christophe is a fictional character, but his story is much more typical.

In the opening scene of Heart of Diamonds, Christophe tells how he was captured and forced to watch his mother’s brutal rape, torture, and murder by guerrillas who attacked his village near the Congo’s border with Angola. The fourteen-year-old is forced to kill a fellow villager before being marched away to begin his life as a child soldier. He plays a key role throughout the book, but his story doesn’t end as happily as Lopez Lomong’s.

Heart of Diamonds is a work of fiction, of course, but thousands of children in the Congo have suffered Christophe’s fate. They are captured by militias, guerrillas, and war lords like dissident general Laurent Nkunda, whose National Congress for the Defense of the Congolese (CNDP), was reported to have deployed child soldiers as recently as December, 2007. Bosco Ntaganda, chief of staff of Nkunda’s militia, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for conscripting children, but Nkunda has refused to turn him over for trial.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Congo Children Ultimately Suffer

Children suffer more and different abuses than adults in many ways. A boy in Gbadolite, a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was killed recently when an object he was using as a hammer blew up in his face. It was a land mine, one of thousands abandoned in the DRC during the last ten years of war and rebellion.

Incidents like these are one of the long-term effects of war on children, a major theme in Heart of Diamonds.

The UN Refugee Agency in the DRC reports that 892 people have been killed and 1,118 injured by mines and UXO’s (unexploded ordnance) strewn across the countryside since 2001. Many of them were children, killed because they don’t know the difference between explosives and toys. Philippe Sondizi Dombale, head of Humanitas Ugbangi, an NGO in Molegbe, northern DRC, told the UN’s IRIN that five children died in Dongo when a grenade exploded as they were playing with it.

The DRC ratified the global anti-personnel mine ban treaty in 2002, but government armed forces are only one of many combatants across the country. The government also lacks resources to conduct the large-scale de-mining campaigns necessary to remove the menace. According to Mine Advisory Group (MAG) country director Marc Angibeaud, de-mining efforts through international NGOs such as MAG, Handicap International and DanChurchAid, have cleared the countryside of thousands of anti-personnel mines and UXO, especially in Equateur, Maniema, Katanga and South Kivu provinces, but they have only scratched the surface.

Even if all arms in Congo were laid down today, children will be maimed and killed by unexploded mines for many years to come.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Oil Toil and Trouble in DRC

Petroleum is about to join gold, uranium, cobalt, copper, coltan, and diamonds as a major source of wealth—and probably trouble—for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). While I was in Uganda last year researching Heart of Diamonds, a spat over oil sparked military actions on the border shared by the two countries around Lake Edward, where major oil deposits have been found. Earlier this year, civil unrest percolated on the other side of the country in Bas-Congo, where other oil development projects are underway.

The Congo’s potential oil reserves aren’t really known, although expectations are high. Numerous exploration projects have been carried out and contracts for development are being let. A trickle of petroleum is flowing in several locations, but more will come as the projects expand. DRC Minister for Hydrocarbons Lambert Mende Omalang says that oil revenue currently represents more than 25 percent of government budget income. This figure could increase following the discovery of new oil blocks in the central basin in northwestern province of Equator, in the western region of Bandundu, as well as in the eastern region of Ituri.

Here are a few current and announced projects gleaned from industry source OilVoice.com:

Dominion Petroleum has teamed with partners SOCO International PLC (SOCO) and State Oil Company Congolaise des Hydrocarbures (COHYDRO) in a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) covering exclusive rights to explore for petroleum in eastern DRC next to the border with Uganda. The area is known as Block 5 and incorporates 7,105 sq km of land and lake areas around Lake Edward. It adjoins a region in Uganda where Dominion has carried out exploration activity as operator since July 2007. Both Blocks are part of the Albertine Rift system of sedimentary basins where significant oil discoveries were made in 2006 and 2007.

The most significant region, though is the sizeable sedimentary basin off the western coast that contains all the oil fields of Congo-Brazzaville, Cabinda, DRC, and north-western mainland Angola, an area that’s presumed to have over a billion barrels of oil.

SOCO also has received a Presidential Decree (the final regulatory hurdle) to begin work in the Nganzi Block in the DRC. The Nganzi Block, where there had been little previous activity before 2006, comprises an area of approximately 800 sq km on the eastern flank of the prolific coastal basin. Acquisition of oil is expected to commence this year.

An aeromagnetic and gravity survey has been mounted by EnerGulf of its Lotshi Block, a concession in the DRC. The survey is designed to identify and map structural trends and leads of the Congo coastal basin. The Lotshi Block covers approx 475 sq km in the offshore coastal basin of the western DRC. It is contiguous to the highly productive Cabinda area of Angola. EnerGulf is the operator of the block.

Surestream Petroleum, a private exploration and production company founded by Moustapha Niasse (twice Prime Minister of Senegal) has been looking for a strategic partner for its working interest in the Ndunda Block, which covers an area of approximately 932 square kilometers located in the narrow coastal strip of the Congo River estuary, sandwiched between mainland Angola and Cabinda.

Two American companies, Chevron and PerencoRep, are working in the coastal city of Muanda in the western region of Bas-Congo, bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Good Intentions Can Backfire In Africa

One of the most persistent problems faced by those trying to bring essential services to developing countries is illustrated by a story I read recently on Sociolingo’s Africa. Here’s a brief excerpt:

I guess I have been around long enough that I am rarely really shocked. However, a story on IPS News from Malawi caught my eye, and yes - I admit it - I am shocked. Read the following:

LILONGWE, Jun 27 (IPS) - Gladys Mawera’s face is contorted with pain -– both she and her newborn baby survived a complicated birth three days ago — but she has not been able to take the painkillers and antibiotics prescribed to her by the medical personnel at the Chiradzulu District Hospital in southern Malawi. The hospital has been without water for five days.

“I am disgusted with my own smell and that of my baby,” says Mawera, who is still wrapped in bloodstained linens as she cradles her child. “There is literally not a drop of water around here,” worries Mawera.

That last line in the highlighted paragraph does it for me. As you read on in the article your mouth drops further and further.

This is not some rustic hospital in the back of beyond. This is a state of the art modern hospital built in 2005 at a cost of 25 million dollars European Union funding which is trying to exist with highly erratic water supplies. In this state of the art hospital, x-rays services are suspended, operations are suspended, patients do not even have water to drink, nurses and doctors do not have water to wash in, linen cannot be washed. How can the hospital function?

It’s all about infrastructure–or the lack thereof–which is essential to building modern societies.

Before modern agricultural methods can be used to compete on world markets, all-weather roads and railroads must exist to take the commodities to market. Before manufacturing plants can operate and provide high-paying jobs, reliable electric power must be available. Before first-class health care can be provided, the hospital must have a plentiful supply of clean water, as this story shows.

We in the West take great pride in projects like the recently-announced $211 million (US) initiative to conserve rainforests in the Congo Basin through the use of advanced satellite camera technology and community-based conservation projects. Personally, I’d rather see the governments of Britain and Norway (who are funding the project), put that money into water towers and pumping stations, concrete roadways, and hydro-electric plants. Global warming is an important issue and there are no easy answers, but the people of Africa will never achieve their full potential until resources are committed to the building blocks of modern society.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Rainforest Disappears In Congo

The African Ministerial Conference on the Environment recently presented Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment, a study that features over 300 satellite images taken in every country in Africa in over 100 locations. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs, some of which span a 35-year period, offer striking snapshots of local environmental transformation across the continent. It chronicles how development choices, population growth, climate change and, in some cases, conflicts are impacting the natural assets of the region.

Here are two views of the region around Bumba in the Nord-Ubangi and Mongala provinces of the DRC. The one on the right is from 1975. You can see the pattern of deforestation concentrated along the local roads as loops of light green through the otherwise dense rain forest. In the right-side image, taken in 2003, these deforested corridors have widened considerably, almost joining in many places.


Most of this deforestation is the result of agricultural conversion, fuelwood collection, settlement, and artisanal logging. Networks of logging roads can also be seen within two of the patches of largely intact forest in the lower right corner of the 2003 image. Full size high resolution images are available at UNEP Atlas of our Changing Environment.

The report says

While industrial logging has had a relatively small impact in the DRC in the past, it has recently become the most extensive form of land use in Central Africa. More than half of the area visible in these images is under logging concession. The selective logging practised by commercial logging companies has been shown to have long-lasting impacts on forest composition. Logging roads have been shown to significantly increase bushmeat hunting.

In addition to local and logging roads, a recent study for the World Bank suggests the road from Bangui, CAR, to Kisangani, DRC, be improved as part of a continental road network. The study shows that the network would increase trade on this route enormously. It also acknowledges concern that parts of the road network that would experience the greatest increase in trade correspond to areas with the highest biodiversity.

It’s also interesting to note that the relative peace in this part of the country has enabled the commercial development that’s causing this deforestation.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Congo Peace Accords Mean Nothing To Victims

Blood continues to flow six months after the signing of a peace agreement that was intended to stop the horrendous violence in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a newly-formed coalition of 64 aid agencies and human rights groups. The new Congo Advocacy Coalition was created to focus attention on the protection of civilians as part of the peace process in eastern Congo.

Ongoing fighting and violence against civilians has forced at least 150,000 people to flee from their homes since the Goma peace agreement was signed on January 23, 2008, according to the coalition's first report. Those newly displaced add to the 1 million refugees from earlier waves of violence in North and South Kivu. UN officials reported at least 200 ceasefire violations between January and July.

The most affected territories are Rutshuru and Masisi in North Kivu, where many displaced people found shelter with host families, receiving only minimal food and assistance, while others fled to displacement camps. The coalition reports that acute malnutrition rates have reached an alarming 17 percent in some areas, well above emergency levels.

Women and girls have been harshly victimized by the continued violence. More than 2,200 cases of rape were recorded in the month of June 2008 in North Kivu province alone, according to the coalition, and this number probably represents only a small portion of the total. At least 200 civilians have been killed in the violence.

Humanitarian agencies trying to expand programs since the signing of the peace agreement have been plagued by increased attacks by armed groups and unidentified bandits. At least 36 attacks were recorded since January 2008, the majority of them ambushes at gunpoint as humanitarian staff attempted to reach vulnerable populations. In the past few weeks, attacks against humanitarian staff on the main road to Masisi town have severely hampered assistance to over 186,000 people.

UN peacekeepers have deployed some 10,000 troops between fighting parties in North and South Kivu, but they are greatly outnumbered and thinly spread.

The Goma agreement was signed by 22 armed groups and the Congolese government. It followed a November, 2007, agreement between the governments of Congo and Rwanda known as the Nairobi Communiqué, which sought to address the issue of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan armed group based in eastern Congo.

The agreements were supposed to form the basis for the Congolese government's peace program in the eastern provicnes, but have largely been ignored by the alphabet soup of militias, army factions, guerilla bands, and outright criminal enterprises terrorizing the region. It's a humanitarian nightmare that may never end.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Prison Life (Or Death) In Congo

Life in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is tough, so it’s hard to imagine what it’s like trying to survive in prison. MONUC, the UN peace-keeping mission to the Congo, recently reported that at least 26 prisoners have died this year from severe and acute malnutrition in just one institution, the Mbuji Mayi central prison, in Kasaï Oriental province where much of Heart of Diamonds is set.

The prison houses 425 prisoners in a facility originally designed for 200. Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions exacerbate health problems in prisoners who are fed less than once a day. MONUC has been providing a weekly water and twice-weekly corn ration to the prison on an emergency basis, but says it can’t continue indefinitely. Making matters much, much worse is that public hospitals won’t accept even the most dangerously-ill prisoners because they can’t pay for their medical care.

"Our concern is even greater as we noted that among these deaths, many of them are defendants, who are therefore presumed innocent because they have not been judged due to the slowness of the legal process," says MONUC Mbuji Mayi Human Rights Officer Assiongbon Tettekpoe.

In a place where even ordinary citizens sometimes scramble to provide the basic necessities of life, the bottom rungs of society stand no chance of survival.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds

Congo Violence Brings Starvation

Peace accords were signed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in January this year, but violence continues to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The UN World Food Program (WFP) warned in July that the agency’s resources were being stretched beyond its capability by refugees forced from their homes by the ongoing guerilla action.

North Kivu province has been particularly hard hit, with at least 100,000 people forced from their homes in Rutshuru district alone, bringing the total displaced in the province since March 2007 to over half a million. Impromptu refugee camps spring up overnight, mostly without supplies or assistance..

The WFP reports it has already cut rations in half to some displaced people camped close to the provincial capital Goma, in an effort to stretch supplies for those in most desperate need at the heart of the mountainous hinterland. The organization says it needs to distribute 10,000 tons of food per month, a gargantuan task given the tinderbox nature of the region, extremely limited transportation infrastructure, and world food prices.

Many of the refugees are farmers in the region’s breadbasket. Their displacement has caused food prices to spike in urban areas that rely on the hinderlands for their food supply.

Malnutrition threatens the lives of thousands of children. The WFP says their surveys in the Masasi and Rutshuru districts show rates for acute malnutrition of over 17 percent.

Complicating the situation is the continual harassment by armed groups that live off the countryside by looting household food supplies, steal or destroy farm equipment, and rape or kidnap women trying to cultivate their fields. Many of the displaced families have now missed three successive planting seasons.

The WFP says it plans to spend US$142 million for its operations in the eastern DRC during the next year. The United States ($62 million), European Commission ($25 million), UN CERF ($16 million), France ($8.7 million), Canada ($6.4 million), Belgium ($6.2 million), Japan ($5 million), Norway ($3 million), Switzerland ($ 2.5 million), and Germany ($1.1 million) have stepped up to the plate, along with Greece, Luxembourg, Korea, Spain, Finland, and Poland.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds

Tags: romantic thriller, Congo, blood diamonds