Title: NEW START FOR VILLAGERS IN CONFLICT -TORN EAST DR CONGO
Date & location: Kiberizi village, North Kivu Province, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, 15-19 May 2006
Duration: 4 mins
Camera: Morris Carpenter
Producer: Jan Powell
Source: ICRC – Access all
Reference : VF CR F 00917 B


This report will be distributed free-to-air and rights free over the Eurovision World Feed satellites at 14.00 to 14.10 GMT on Tuesday 25 July 2006.

For full details of the World feed, go to the EBU website and/or see below for timings and technical specification:

For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Virginie Miranda, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva,

SHOTLIST

00 00 Soldiers of the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC) on patrol in Virunga National Park near village of Kibirizi, North Kivu


00 28 Checkpoint with FARDC soldiers and lorry carrying civilians at Rwindi Barracks in Virunga National park

00 38 Kibirizi , villagers assemble to receive basic household items, various shots

00 47 People gathering at distribution point

001 03 ICRC convoy of lorries carrying kits of household items arrives in village of Kibirizi - various shots

01 17 Soldiers in village

01 30 villagers having identities checked, plus close-ups

01 58 villagers picking up kits

02 10 ITW Appoline Kabuo, Kibirizi villager, Swahili

"This is a great help to us, because we had nothing, nothing at all, nothing left in the house not even a plate, so this aid will help us to start normal life again."


02 25 identities being checked

02 30 ITW Maliza Ntawiniga, ICRC

"Today the people haven’t come from very far, the furthest is just 2 kilometres , they live here in the centre of the village, but sometimes, people come from up to 100 kilometres, they have to walk for two days to get here, , but somehow they manage."

02 49 Issa Lulengero, Kiberizi villager, in queue to check identity against ICRC list

Issa and his wife Aimée both fled Kiberizi in January, stayed in village of Kanyabayonga and have returned home to find their house empty and all their possessions looted.

02 52 Issa picks up his kit

03 01 Issa goes home

03 06 Arrives home and unpacks his kit with his wife, takes out blankets

03 18 ITW Issa Lulengero, Kiberizi villager, Swahili

"My family managed to arrive safe and sound, but my younger brother was killed on the way."


03 26 cutaway - child

03 29 ITW Issa Lulengero continues

"As far as elections are concerned, I hope it will all go well, but given what has happened here with the rebel soldiers who took over the villages, we are waiting to see, we are afraid that they might not stay where they are, that they might come back here to Kibirizi. ."

03 53 GV family

03 57 ENDS

In the troubled province of North Kivu in Eastern DRC, around 45,000 people have returned over the last month to the village of Kibirizi and outlying districts. They fled their homes in January when conflict between government forces, the FARDC, and rebels from the south-east reached their village. Driven into the surrounding forest, many fled on foot to the village of Kanyabayonga, some 30 kilometres away, where they found refuge and waited for the fighting to subside.

Most villagers escaped at night with what they could carry in their bare hands. Many were looted by armed fighters as they fled. Three months later the villagers are coming back to their homes to find them ransacked and empty. To help them make a fresh start, the ICRC has handed out kits of basic necessities - blankets, cooking pots, soap and clothing - to some 9,000 destitute families.

Appoline Kabuo ran from her home with her 5 children. She has come back three months later to find everything stolen or destroyed: "We had nothing, nothing at all, nothing left in the house not even a plate, so this aid will help us to start normal life again."

Throughout the week, around 1,800 families a day queued patiently in the full heat of the sun to receive their goods. " Sometimes people come from up to 100 kilometres, they have to walk for two days to get here, but somehow they manage," says Maliza Ntawiniga of the ICRC.

Issa Lulengero and his wife Aimée were among the villagers queuing for supplies. They managed to escape Kibirizi in January but were separated from their four children and it was a month before they were reunited. Issa's brother was killed by fighters on the way to safety. Like many of the returning villagers, Issa hopes that the elections, scheduled for the end of July, will restore lasting stability to the area, but he remains uncertain: "As far as elections are concerned, I hope it will all go well, but given what has happened here with the rebel soldiers who took over the villages, we are waiting to see, we are afraid that they might not stay where they are, that they might come back here to Kibirizi. ."

Once the villagers had collected their goods, many were nervous that they could again be attacked and looted as they returned home. They travelled back in groups for greater safety.

In this extremely remote but strategically important area, close to the borders with Rwanda and Burundi, security is being restored by a heavy presence of the Congolese Government Army (FARDC), backed by UN peacekeepers. A number of rebel groups remain in the surrounding hills, particularly in the inaccessible Virunga National Park a few miles to the east of Kibirizi. Tension remains high among local people and there are concerns that fighting could flare again, especially with the approach of elections, scheduled for the end of July.