On the eastern borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Vitshumbi is a terminus. The only track ends there. In front: Lake Edward, its fishermen, its hippos and its Mai-Mai militiamen. Behind is the March 23 Movement (M23), checkpoints, a deserted road and columns of rebels wearing Rwandan army helmets. According to local authorities, some 24,000 people live in Vitshumbi, North Kivu. Since November and the massive outbreak of the rebellion, this fishing town has been cut off from the provincial capital, Goma, on which its survival depends.
Administration officials receive their rare visitors in a building in advanced collapse. As with all state services, here, the vestiges of the Belgian colonial era serve as offices. In a room with blackened walls, one of them explains, on condition of anonymity, that the blockade of the road is due to the Congolese army and not to the rebels. “It is the DRC authorities who refuse traffic on the RN2. There is no problem with the M23,” he told AFP.
He then explains how the fresh fish, unloaded at Vitshumbi, is reloaded immediately smoked on canoes, 30 km due east, to bypass the army checkpoints. Arrived in another fishery at the end of the world, Nyakakoma, the baskets of fish are strapped on motorbikes and enter the M23 zone… towards Goma!
Young fish disappear
To circulate without incident, you have to pay “10 dollars per motorcycle” to the M23, specifies a representative of the fishermen. The additional transport costs associated with the detour and the various “taxes” of the armed men reduce the thin margins of the fishmongers of Vitshumbi to a trickle. “I don’t earn anything today,” sighs Espérance Matomahini. Sitting in a decrepit hangar of the services of the Ministry of Fisheries, she despairs: “My children were chased out of school, I could no longer pay for their schooling. »
The sky turns stormy. A boat docks. It is empty. “We fished all night but we found nothing,” said the captain of a canoe, annoyed. “Some fish in the spawning grounds [fish breeding grounds] and since they pay the naval forces [of the Congolese army] or the mayi-mayi [community militias], they are protected”, denounced a representative of a group of fishermen. Young fish disappear. From year to year, Vitshumbi sees the hope of good fishing dwindling. “We went from 15,000 tons to less than 400 tons of fish per year in a short time,” says Delphin Mutahinga, the local governor’s representative.
A legacy of the colonial period, the boundaries of Virunga National Park, drawn nearly a century ago, stretch 300 km from north to south and encompass Vitshumbi. The park being classified as a World Heritage Site by Unesco, the rules are strict and its guards keep watch. “We are not allowed to do anything but fishing here, no farming, nothing. We have to buy everything,” explains Joseph Muhindo, president of the local civil society.
Before the war, most basic products (flour, oil, soap, etc.) arrived by truck directly from Goma, via the national road. Today, they take complicated paths from the Ugandan border, between shifting front lines. Or they arrive from the north of the province, after 250 km of mountainous road infested with armed groups.
“We were born in war”
“We only know one guy who dared to take the road from Goma to Vitshumbi since the M23s were there. It must be crazy. Or he had smoked hemp”, laugh the Mai-Mai, who present themselves as “displaced by war” and accuse the army of having “abandoned” them. “They promised us ammunition, but they didn’t even deliver 20% of what they said,” thunders Serge, who introduces himself as the “self-defense commander”. He maintains that with more support from the army, they could have won the war against the M23 – despite being supported and supplied by the Rwandan army, according to UN experts. As the crow flies, barely a hundred kilometers separate Vitshumbi from Rwanda.
Evening falls on the town, where the boats are moored. We pray that the fishing will be good, but especially for the reopening of the road… and the departure of the rebels. A small tornado throws sand on a row of outdated buildings, a group of mayi-mayi wanders through the city. One of them sighs: “We were born in war. We grew up in war. We will die in war…”
The M23 and the Rwandan army have taken over large swaths of North Kivu in less than a year. In addition to the Congolese army and the United Nations mission in the DRC, Monusco, military contractors from Eastern Europe have been deployed since December and a regional force of several thousand soldiers has been created. Despite the presence of all these armed men, the rebels are still there. The economy is at a standstill. And the fishmongers of Vitshumbi continue to pay taxes to the M23.