Congo Blue

The government representative has spun his chair, launched an empty beer bottle with his heel and looked out the window. "North-Kivu resembles the sky," he said.

I agree. A sunbird sang and we sat for a moment in silence, lost in the sun. In the distance, cormorants and cuckoo hawks circled above the glassy waters of Lake Kivu.
As the sky darkened and a plume of red smoke rises from the Nyiragongo volcano, the officer took a long drag on his cigarette. "It's like hell, my daughter," he said.
He could talk to any one of a number of conflict zones: the white sands of the island of Baghdad, Herat, Afghanistan or Darfur Jebel Marra mountain region, with its gardens, hot springs and cascades of long fall.

But this was Goma, once the tourist capital "of Congo" and the main town in North Kivu, perched on the north shore of Lake Kivu, where jungle meets volcanic rock and gentle green hills.
The tourists stop coming. Information centers are boarded and the tourism minister has turned his attention to the journalists.
"The future of our province is bleak," said local resident Kennedy Ndayisenga, who once led a successful tour company but now works as a fixative. "We do not know where we go."

Goma was known for its sunrises, mountain climbing and trekking gorillas. Now, the city that has suffered a loss endless destruction and volcanic eruptions in a perennial conflict is experiencing a forgotten emergency.
Since August, more than 175,000 people have fled violence in North Kivu between government troops, Tutsi insurgents loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda, Rwandan Hutu rebels and jungle Mai Mai militia.

Last week, the Congolese army used helicopter gunships, artillery and rocket launchers to take over the dairy town of Mushake - about 40 km (25 mile) from Goma - by rebels loyal to Laurent Nkunda. At least 35 soldiers on both sides were killed. At least 30 were injured.
Mushake was quiet when I went through two weeks. The houses were empty, restaurants and drinking holes convicted. Most residents had fled and their wives and families of Nkunda's troops remained. They stood around chatting in the square. A woman led me through the muddy streets of his home. We went through a cloud of tiny baby blue butterflies, past grazing cattle in the rolling plains, dotted with eucalyptus trees lean and orange blossom. Now those streets are marked with blood, sweat and tears.
War zones are not supposed to be beautiful. And if they are, journalists are probably not supposed to admit. But Mushake, like the rest of North Kivu, it serves to reinforce the desperate situation.
The United Nations says tens of thousands of women and girls - some as young as a few months - were raped in the provinces of North and South Kivu, in the last year alone. Deaths due to hunger and preventable diseases are at a peak. Villages empty as camps for displaced people inside the swell.

In the IDP camp at Mugunga, I knelt in the black earth to conduct interviews with people who had lost everything. When I looked up, the mountains were embroidered by the golden rays of early morning sun.
At Goma, policemen carry rocket launchers almost as big they are. In the countryside, arms transporting children to the rebels. Host families in schools and churches. The old cry for cookies.

Yes, the North Kivu is bloody beautiful. The mountains are bruised and the volcano is bleeding. Streams of lava spill red blood on her lips. The smoky flames look like a failure, a call for help.
It is, as Joseph Conrad said, is one of the dark places of the world.

With tourism, or news coverage, nor sufficient, it will Probab.