Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 08:20:50 -0400
Subject: Re: Central Africa...
in general, has plenty of strife. Sometimes, it takes me a while to remember where I am geographically - and the more you get into a routine, the more you tend to forget. But events and stories that I hear stir me from complacency.
This is what happened to a bunch of my colleagues on their return from a conference in Congo, Kinshasa last week. Their return flight was from Congo, Brazzaville (there are 2 Congos). They crossed over to Brazzaville by ferry, stayed the night there and left for the airport at dawn.
As luck would have it, war broke out in Brazzaville and no sooner than they reached the airport, they heard firing. The Ninja rebels were trying to take over the airport. In fact they were attempting a coup d’etat (the President was away and apart from preventing his return, obviously they wanted to take control of all air traffic.)
So my colleagues and the conference delegation (ministers et al) lay flat on the ground for nearly 5 hours. They lay in the midst of the firing in their business attire, and watched the military (who incidentally drugged heavily, to gain courage, I’m told) combat the Ninjas.
Then they managed to leave the airport and get to the Cameroonian embassy. They thought of getting back to Kinshasa (Republic Democratic Congo) on the ferry but all water routes were closed. So they waited at the embassy and after the military had quelled the rebels, they got back to the airport! Choppers flew out and stayed in the air before the flight took off and they finally got out of Brazzaville.
At this end, we heard of the war only late afternoon. Information on the radio was sparse, but fortunately, the director managed to call and let his wife know they were at the embassy. We just sat in front of the TV, with the radio in the background for a couple of hours, hoping to hear sthg. It was quite scary and bewildering! But fortunately, it all ended well, and everybody was back to work on Monday!
Here is a little background of the war, if this story has made you curious.
Central Africa is extremely rich in resources - diamonds, gold, petroleum and the population is not too much either. So in an ideal world, there would be plenty of resources and riches to go around. But unfortunately, that is not the case. There is plenty of corruption, rebel forces who want to take over the resources, and industries (especially petroleum) in Europe who provide arms to the rebel leaders to take care of their vested interests, so I’m told.
This turned out to be a rather long note, but will recount some other stories I heard later...
btw there is no war in Cameroon :) and is one of the more stable countries in
Central Africa. So there is no reason to worry. Also, I don’t go anywhere alone (which is a pain, but strongly advised).
Didn’t mean to scare you with war stories, but the world seems different from the one we live in and when events like these happen to people you know, it suddenly becomes very real and not merely something you read about in the newspaper...
bye for now...
love,
ruta
Subject: Re: Central Africa...
in general, has plenty of strife. Sometimes, it takes me a while to remember where I am geographically - and the more you get into a routine, the more you tend to forget. But events and stories that I hear stir me from complacency.
This is what happened to a bunch of my colleagues on their return from a conference in Congo, Kinshasa last week. Their return flight was from Congo, Brazzaville (there are 2 Congos). They crossed over to Brazzaville by ferry, stayed the night there and left for the airport at dawn.
As luck would have it, war broke out in Brazzaville and no sooner than they reached the airport, they heard firing. The Ninja rebels were trying to take over the airport. In fact they were attempting a coup d’etat (the President was away and apart from preventing his return, obviously they wanted to take control of all air traffic.)
So my colleagues and the conference delegation (ministers et al) lay flat on the ground for nearly 5 hours. They lay in the midst of the firing in their business attire, and watched the military (who incidentally drugged heavily, to gain courage, I’m told) combat the Ninjas.
Then they managed to leave the airport and get to the Cameroonian embassy. They thought of getting back to Kinshasa (Republic Democratic Congo) on the ferry but all water routes were closed. So they waited at the embassy and after the military had quelled the rebels, they got back to the airport! Choppers flew out and stayed in the air before the flight took off and they finally got out of Brazzaville.
At this end, we heard of the war only late afternoon. Information on the radio was sparse, but fortunately, the director managed to call and let his wife know they were at the embassy. We just sat in front of the TV, with the radio in the background for a couple of hours, hoping to hear sthg. It was quite scary and bewildering! But fortunately, it all ended well, and everybody was back to work on Monday!
Here is a little background of the war, if this story has made you curious.
Central Africa is extremely rich in resources - diamonds, gold, petroleum and the population is not too much either. So in an ideal world, there would be plenty of resources and riches to go around. But unfortunately, that is not the case. There is plenty of corruption, rebel forces who want to take over the resources, and industries (especially petroleum) in Europe who provide arms to the rebel leaders to take care of their vested interests, so I’m told.
This turned out to be a rather long note, but will recount some other stories I heard later...
btw there is no war in Cameroon :) and is one of the more stable countries in
Central Africa. So there is no reason to worry. Also, I don’t go anywhere alone (which is a pain, but strongly advised).
Didn’t mean to scare you with war stories, but the world seems different from the one we live in and when events like these happen to people you know, it suddenly becomes very real and not merely something you read about in the newspaper...
bye for now...
love,
ruta
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