When will the road get better? (2)

My train of thoughts is suddenly interrupted when the driver stops the car. We’re in Komanda, a village between Bunia and Beni. Christian wants to get out to check on some news he heard yesterday. It appears that recent violence has forced a new group of refugees to camp in the yard of the local catholic church.

It’s not hard to find them. Around what looks like a church building is a crowd of approximately 500 people, mostly just standing or sitting while children either sit or play in the middle. A little boy is sitting on a huge stone, keeping a stained Unicef bag close to him. The UN's children's organisation has been handing out thousands of them in schools, and this boy obviously still has it including the pen and the note book it contained. Did he take it with him when his family had to leave everything behind? Just next to him a woman has started to gather fire wood in small piles next to the road, ready to sell.

In the meantime Christian has started talking with the chief and and the elders, while curious people soon become a crowd surrounding them. The chief tells that they are from the Lesse tribe. They have been here since Monday, after a rebel group attacked them and burned their houses. They had to run for their lives. And had nowhere else to go then back to this place that they left in April last year, when it seemed to be safe to go home again. The chief doesn’t know who the rebels were, but is desperate to find out. It’s not hard to guess why, says Christian when we are back on the road. The chief will want revenge.

It’s very hard to leave these people behind. No one seems to be looking after them and many of them haven’t had food since they arrived. They are just surviving. Hoping that someone will come and help them. Hoping that there will come a time that the roads will be good again.