On the Road to Nowhere ....

We travelled in a convoy with NRC to Masisi today, seven cars leaving Goma on a spectacularly brilliant morning, marching 'as to war' with flags flying and hazard warning lights turning heads as we slowly made our way through the populous suburbs of Goma town. Travelling in a convoy is one of those occasions when you are pumping a bit of adrenaline and you feel for once that what you do is somehow noble and elevated: logisticians get very excited and show off how savvy they are about security management, and I try to hide myself in the back of the last car in the convoy to avoid the embarrassment of being spotted by my friends.
Travelling in well organised convoys around North Kivu has proved to be essential for security for humanitarian actors: with more than ten attacks on NGOs just on the Masisi road, short of an armed escort, the convoy system has provided a safe and effective way to mitigate against armed attacks.
Little seems to have changed on the Masisi road, gregarious FARDC troops give way to the gaunt and smileless CNDP soldiers in their signature black wellington boots and state of the art Khalshnikovs,- surrounded by countryside that would make Connemara or Donegal look a bit tame.

The journey was normal and uneventful for Masisi road in the rainy season. We saw encouraging signs of life in Bihambwe, with families returning to their abandoned homes, cattle grazing the lush high pasturelands and a steady flow of people moving on foot to the regional markets. We stopped at the last MONUC base in the CNDP-controlled area to greet the captain there and to check up on security on the road - apparently no shooting since Saturday so we continue from the MONUC baptised 'gates of hell' into the no man's land between CNDP and Government control. We emerged from the 2.5 km stretch of no man’s land five and a half hours later, having had to pull four trucks out of the metre deep mud-infested, barely recognisable road. Thankfully we were jollied along in our endeavours to cross the red zone by a patrol of South African MONUC soldiers who encouraged us in our desperate efforts to de-blob ourselves out of the quagmire. I think they should change the name of the red zone to something more appropriate, like the light brown zone.

We finally turned the last corner to see Masisi twinkling before us; in almost biblical proportions the dark clouds rolled away to reveal a cluster of IDP camps, glittering white with the brand new plastic roofing sheets we had distributed a matter of days ago. The changes in Masisi town are imperceptible, but if you look carefully in the dark corners along the main street, you can see some fairly heavily armed soldiers sporting Light Machine Guns and Rocket Propelled Grenade launchers. If you really strain your eyes as you scan the hills behind the Concern base you can see troops moving like ants across the ridge of the high hills; moving artillery, preparing to defend Masisi town in what is universally recognised to be potentially the most bloody battle for the Kivus so far.