Humanitarian Barge Reaches Residents Cut Off By Ongoing War In Central Congo

Catholic Relief Services
Thursday, 7 March 2002

Nineteen days after leaving the capital city of Kinshasa laden with 760 metric tons of humanitarian supplies, a shipment of iodized salt, clothing, fuel, soap, school supplies, medicine and other goods reached the town of Bena Dibele in central Congo last week. The shipment is the first of its kind since December of 1998, when the country's ongoing civil war forced a closure of all commercial and humanitarian river traffic on the Sankuru River, creating critical shortages of essential manufactured products in the beleaguered Tshumbe region.

The effort, coordinated by Caritas Congo and supported by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and other local and international nongovernmental organizations, has been more than three months in planning, requiring the permission of both the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Congolese Movement for Democracy, the rebel group that now holds much of eastern Congo.

"What we are really aiming to do with this project is open up the river to normal traffic," said Cassie Knight, a CRS Program Officer who has been involved in the project since its inception. "This is something that all of the belligerent parties have agreed to, and we're hoping river traffic can restart."

Once the manufactured goods are unloaded, the barges will be loaded with locally purchased maize and rice, which will then be taken back to Kinshasa and distributed to health and social service programs in the city -- part of a CRS-supported effort to stimulate the local economy in the agriculturally rich region surrounding Bena Dibele. Though able to grow a variety of foods locally, farmers in the region have been unable to sell their goods since river traffic was halted, strangling the local economy.

"This is a region that has relied on river transport for its whole history," Knight said. "For the people here to see the arrival of the boat was a sign of hope."

The arrival of the barge, which traveled more than 1,300 kilometers from Kinshasa under UN escort, coincides with the Inter-Congolese Dialogue taking place in Sun City, South Africa, as the warring parties in Congo meet in an attempt to further peace talks. Distribution of the goods, targeting children, pregnant women, widows and other vulnerable groups in the region, will begin by late March.

For more information, or to contact Catholic Relief Services, see their website at: www.catholicrelief.org