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Third Place
Cedric Gerbehaye Agence Vu
"Congo in Limbo"
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In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), eight
long years of armed conflict have plunged the country into turmoil and seen
nearly four million people killed. In 2006, the DRC finally engaged in a
process of political restoration by organizing the country's first democratic
presidential elections. Unfortunately, the failure of the militias'
demobilization campaign and the creation of a new national army composed of
an alliance of all armed groups were a handicap to the country's recovery. It
is in eastern Congo, in Ituri and Kivu, regions filled with mineral resources
situated at the frontier with Uganda and Rwanda that the situation is at the
more tense and deadly. In August 2007, fighting resumed between the national
army and the ex-general Laurent Nkund's troops in the North Kivu province.
465.000 people had to flee their villages because of fighting, raping,
recruitment of children into armed groups and extortions. The last wave of
violence between August and December 2007 in Kivu raises the total number of
displaced persons to 800.000 as a result of the battle between 25,000 men of
the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) and 4,000 rebels
of the general Laurent Nkunda, making it a humanitarian crisis as important
as in Darfur.
"Congo in Limbo - Training. "
Masisi hills, North-Kivu, DRC, July 2007. Training
session of CNDP soldiers (National Congres for the Defense of the People) in
Kichanga, stronghold of the dissident general Laurent Nkunda. These Tutsis
soldiers, some recruited across the nearby Rwanda border, are well trained,
armed and famous for their discipline.
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