Fighting in Kishasa

posted on monday | 21 may | 2007

...We were in the heart of the small district controlled by Bemba’s soldiers. And in the heart of the action...

If you are in London, I advise you to go and see the paintings of Congolese leading artist Cheri Samba at the Tate Modern.

I was with him and my girlfriend Marlene – who is also the Kinshasa Reuters TV correspondent - in his Kinshasa studio working on a feature when we heard that there was renewed trouble on Kinshasa’s main boulevard.

We rushed there and saw the government forces deployed around Bemba’s residence. Bemba’s former rebels were half nacked, and started to perform a combat dance on the Boulevard du 30 Juin.

We parked the car behind the corner, we approached Bemba’s soldiers who talked briefly to us. The crowd was pretty excited, particularly a large group of schoolboys and girls who took to the streets in support of Mr Bemba, who enjoyed a lot of support in Kinshasa. But when the first gunshots were fired it got immediately very intense and everyone, including the government troops, scattered. We took refuge with a group of Congolese civilians into a big concrete building just behind Bemba’s house. My Flashman recorder wasn’ working - Flashman recorders are not reliable, it is the second one I’ve got that bugs -  so I had left it in the car. I had no time to take the one flackjacket from the trunk of the car either.

I, of course, immediately called the newsroom and started to report. We were in the heart of the small district controlled by Bemba’s soldiers. And in the heart of the action.

I also had a useful conversation with an emergency security officer of the BBC, who advised me to hide in the lower floors of the building, so that we could flee in case the building took fire. The building didn’t take fire but the top floor got repeatedly hit by mortars and bullets.

Kabila’s troops were forced to pull out from Kinshasa’s entire business district and there was a lull. Despite our advise not to do so, a group of men and women decided to leave the building. In the evening one of them called us in chock and told us that members of that group had been executed by Kabila’s soldiers, on the ground that given his area of origen he had most probably voted for Jean-Pierre Bemba in the recent elections. A woman was also killed by a stray bullet.

At nightfall we started to wonder where we would spend the night and get a meal. Moreover our phones were running out of battery. We then remembered that some friends of friends lived in a house opposite the building where we were.

Their Congolese employee opened the gate as we ran across the street and rushed in.

We had nice food and they happened to have the right charger for my phone. It was great to be put up by this Indian family. But the mansion only had a simple metal roof. We were shelled all night by Kabila’s troops which had launched a counter-offensive. We could hear the sound of the engines of the mortars that were landing near us.

At some point a mortar hit the roof and there was some dust and small metal bowls that entered one of the bedrooms, they were also some cracks in the wall of our bedroom. It was a terrible night.

It only stopped between 2’30 and 5 AM. The combattants probably got a bit of sleep. So did we.

But in the early hours of Friday, it kicked off again and spread to different parts of town. The government troops had organized a counter-offensive.  I was on the phone constantly, either tracking down and talking to eyewitnesses in different parts of town, or reporting.

I have been covering DRCongo for the last six years and I should say my network of contacts was really efficient. I also benefited from our hosts’ network. They were members of an Indian family that had been present in DRCongo for so long that they even knew some of the characters that have inspired V.S Naipaul for his great novel A bend in the river.

I also liaised with BBC Swahili’s journalist Lubunga Bia’Ombe who was by the ISDN line in the BBC office with the rest of the team, and had a view on another strategic part of town, including on the national oil reserve that took fire.

But at some point, peeping under the gate of our house we started seeing government army’s pick up cars passing by. And well-dressed soldiers looting the opposite building. Government soldiers had taken over our district.

In the afternoon of Friday, it was said on State Television that the government forces had recaptured the entire business district. National television started to show footage of Bemba’s deserted compound.  I called army’s chief of staff and he sent a military escort to take us back home. The flack jacket that was in the car had disappeared. It indeed was a useful piece of equipment in these difficult times and I hope it saved the life of the person who took it. The Flashman has been hit by a bullet and the thiefs have been clever enough to ignore this dead piece of equipment -I now keep it as a trophy that I will hopefully one day show to my grandchildren.

The car had been hit by many bullets. The windshield had a big hole in the middle. Our host gave us a blanket that we put on the seats to protect us from the many pieces of glass that was all what remained of the rear and side windows.

One soldier jumped in – he had to enter through the window as the door wouldn’t open - and we followed a military jeep loaded with soldiers, full speed on the Boulevard. But as we approached our home and internet connection, we had to take a side street and the military escort suddenly let us go first. We had almost reached our destination but we had made the mistake of not agreeing on the exact itinerary we would take. And the soldiers didn’t know the exact location of our place. And here we were, forced to open the way to a military vehicle.

So, we advanced through the small streets. But two rounds of fire were shot at us. There was a gunman hidden somewhere.

The soldier shouted at me “Zonga, zonga” -  “reverse, reverse” in Lingala. I went backward full speed and we left the area and drove back to our friends. But by then, the soldiers who were holding the junction next to the villa had seen my girlfriend and were showing interest. One of them approached her, pretented he would take her camera and tried to touch her cheek. Though I got formally introduced to the chief of the unit that controlled the junction, once our escort left, we weren’t comfortable with staying there.  We had been asking the UN to come and pick us up since the morning. But they had injured people, UN staff, and children to evacuate first. I then called the UN, explained the situation, and it took less than 30 minutes for two UN armoured vehicles to be at our gate. We arrived at the UN compound. it was then more quiet, so we walked to our house which is just behind the UN, and where we had access to the internet.

My girlfriend could then file her pictures and I was able to file radio pieces in quality.

Heavy shooting erupted again in the early hours of Saturday, as the government forces were intempting to take control of Kinshasa’s port, on the Congo river. But it died down after a few minutes. It was game over for Mr Bemba and his men.