As the world celebrates Barack Obama's victory as the next president of the United States, AfroSpear reminds us that the conflict in the province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo hasn't stopped:
In this era where a man of African descent has secured the throne of the most powerful nation of the world, a tragedy of enormous proportions continues to be played out in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is indeed easier to sell a “message of hope” in political change to cure what ails us… than to “commit to action” so as to change a situation of recurring despair and destruction.
At the Untold Stories blog from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Michael Kavanagh writes from Goma:
There are now more than one million people who have fled their homes in North Kivu, and very few are receiving any humanitarian aid. Before last week's fighting, most were getting by through the generosity of neighbors who hosted the displaced in their homes and yards and farms. Now those host families are displaced, too. People are fleeing into forests, to churches, to schools [...]
Last Friday, November 7th, regional African leaders meeting at a United Nations-backed summit in Nairobi called for an immediate ceasefire in eastern DRC, and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor so that the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the recent crisis can get the assistance they need. The summit, hosted by the African Union (AU), brought together DRC President Joseph Kabila and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, which borders North Kivu, as well as the leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Africa.nAlready on October 29th a ceasefire was announced unilaterally by the CNDP, the rebel force led by Laurent Nkunda. However, even as the summit was taking place, there were reports of heavy clashes between FARDC (the Congolese army) and CNDP in a number of rural areas including Kibati, about 9km north of Goma, leading to further displacements.
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Kenyans have been partying since dawn since learning that the man they consider their native son will be the next President of the US. Especially in the small farming village of Nyangoma-Kogelo where Barack Obama's father was born, but also all throughout the country and in the Kenyan blogosphere everyone has hailed Obama's victory as an event of historic relevance.
Arisa Moraa, a Kenyan American, describes at Kenya Imagine her first US election being able to vote:
I never had the chance to engage in the voting process in Kenya because I left Kenya before I was of age. I stood by in 2007 as millions of Kenyans voted and felt a sadness at being of age to vote and unable to vote in my home country.But then came 2008 and I was of age, and I could vote, and Barack Obama an AmeriKen (American Kenyan) like me was on the ballot. It was a chance for me to make history.. first time voting, and voting for a Kenyan. It is an incredible moment in history.
I couldn't sleep last night, and was up at the crack of dawn enroute to a polling station to exercise my privilege to vote. I was a mixture of emotions.. joy, excitement, anxiety, angst.... all at the possibility... the hope, anticipating CHANGE that I can believe in. It took an hour because there was a lot of people there, but I was excited as I checked in my federal selection.. Obama/Biden.. and the other numerous democrats I don't know. I am beyond myself... First time voter... in a historic election.. Obama IS my president!
Kumekucha describes the festive mood in Kenya, including a few photos from the celebrations in the Kogelo village:
Back home in Kenya, President Mwai Kibaki was not just among the first to send congratulatory message to the new President-elect, but he also declared Thursday November 6th 2008 a public holiday throughout Kenya. Almost everywhere around the country, Kenyans are in celebratory mood as people digest the fact that a man whom they share an ancestry has been elected to the helm of global political and economic power.
