eyewitness to the man-made wanton destruction now taking place in
eastern Congo, cautions us, in the post he filed in the evening of
Wednesday, July 25, about the kind of bragging implicit in the title
of this post.
Dr de Mérode ends that heart-wrenching post by remarking:
"The battlefield victories lose their relevance amidst the cries of
the injured."
Who's gonna blame him?
In one single afternoon, Dr de Mérode:
1) Saw "seriously wounded [civilians] asking for help. All had
been caught in the crossfire";
2) Had to attempt to have medical assistance provided to "a small girl
with multiple shrapnel wounds";
3) Arranged medical help for "an old man with a badly injured foot";
4) Put his life on the line in the case of "a school teacher caught in
an ambush with a bullet through the back of his leg causing a complex
exposed fracture with
massive loss of blood. The park's small clinic isn't equipped for this
level of trauma.
"It became clear that the teacher would not make it without
proper surgery, so we used our small aircraft to fly him to Goma, a
20-minute flight. The road is
closed, and Rumangabo is completely cut off from the rest of the
world, except for the aircraft";
5) Then, "Upon returning to the park, [had to attend to] more injured
people lined up at the clinic";
6) Saw " A baby girl dead on arrival
killed by a mortar explosion"; and, last and not least,
7) Watched helplessly "a man in a coma with a bullet lodged in his
skull just above his left eye!"
Indeed a traumatic and bloody day, which gives an idea of the
generalized madness now flaring up in eastern Congo.
***
This being said, let's look at the tactical development in the battles
raging on in the area in the last several hours.
At midday on Wednesday, the battle around Rumangabo was so bad the
blog post of the Virunga National Park was posted from Goma by LuAnne
Cadd, a Park official already evacuated to Goma.
Cadd writes:
"The word from staff at Rumangabo park headquarters is not good.
"A battle that began this morning around 5 am has been intensifying
over the morning and is now raging.
"Machine-gun fire and mortars can be heard close by in all directions.
"It appears that the battle may be for the nearby military base.
"Most of the residents of the village have fled to the tiny UN base a
couple kilometers away near our airstrip.
"The descriptions coming from staff is that gunfire is coming in rapid
bursts of 50 or more shots at a time, and regular explosions.
There isn't any place to hide and the roads to Goma are not
accessible... "
By late evening of Wednesday, Dr de Mérode was able to post again.
The account of Dr de Mérode seems to confirm the hunch I had earlier
on about the FARFC breaking the pincer movement attempted by M23--with
the Congolese troops having the upper hand in that area.
The bad news is that the road to Goma from the Park is still cutt off.
Dr de Mérode writes:
" Battle at Rumangabo
"Today at Rumangabo, the battle came to our doorstep.
"Most of the day was dominated by the sounds of heavy mortar
explosions and machine-gun fire.
"In the afternoon the Congolese army entered Rumangabo village with
tanks and heavy artillary
moving up to the school that sits right outside the park gates.
"After the fighting subsided, villagers began arriving at the park's
headquarters carrying the
seriously wounded and asking for help.
"[...]
"Rumangabo is once again in Government control.
" Rutshuru and Kiwanja have been taken by the M23."
***
SOURCE: gorillacd.org
***
PHOTO: FARDC soldiers
CREDITS: AFP
VIA: rnw.nl
No comments:
Post a Comment