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Jungle trek leads missionaries to safety after Congo massacre
2002-219-4
9/25/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
More than 700 people who fled to the jungle after a massacre at their medical compound in the northeast corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo have reached safety, mission sources in London have learned.
The party of doctors, nurses and patients from Nyankunde made a dramatic trek of about 170 kilometers through savannah and dense forest to reach the town of Oicha, losing no member of the group on the journey. Among the group is a 75-year-old Canadian missionary, Marianne Baisley, who was reported to have refused evacuation on a light plane that took other expatriates out of Nyankunde on September 13 after the medical facilities were destroyed in tribal fighting.
Survivors reported that at least 1,000 people died in eight days of inter-tribal strife, triggered by the presence nearby of gold, diamonds and coltan, a valuable ore used in mobile phones. The turmoil was described in a refugee report from Oicha as 'a long agony.'
Nyankunde is a major Christian center where at least eight mission bodies work. The hospital, orthopedic center, pharmacy, schools, churches and the Pan-African Institute of Community Health constituting the medical compound were ransacked. The only water pipe supplying the compound was severed in the fighting, and cholera has now broken out in the region.
Although the medical party has reached safety, 2,000 people are understood to remain at Nyankunde where, according to one refugee, 'nothing at all is left.' There were conflicting reports about the fate of Salomon Isereve, principal chaplain at the Evangelical Medical Center (CME), who was reportedly tortured and burned alive. Another church worker, the Rev. Henri Basimake, HIV/Aids coordinator for the Anglican province of Congo, was shot dead after returning from a conference in Nairobi. Medical personnel, students and patients were not spared in the violence.
The Church Mission Society, an evangelical Anglican group, has a long historic association with the region. In 1870 it supplied the first Christian missionaries to reach Uganda, across Lake Albert from northeastern Congo. At Nyankunde the mission society supports community health projects while other mission groups help to improve clinical medical facilities.
A Church Mission Society spokesman told ENI, 'The priorities are to restore water and food at Nyankunde, followed by a restoration of the valuable work there and a long-term solution to unrest in the region.'
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