Triumphal Entry of Mai-Mai into Butembo and Beni

No longer able to indefinitely stand by as spectators before the tragedy exterminating Congolese citizens "Nande" of the territory of Beni,  Mai-mai patriots finally decided to return to their noble plateau of popular self-defense mission.

It is an intervention that transcends categorization in terms of such a group from Mai-Mai or another. This is an alliance of all patriotic loving attention to the defense of defenseless civilians delivered to the extermination for two whole years in Beni territory.

Caming from all over the territory of Lubero, but especially its southern part, a multitude of patriots from Mai-Mai was found Friday in Butembo to conduct an aggressive raid on cutthroats in Beni. The white garment adopted by these fighters is just a sign that they are restoring peace whose dimension finally escapes the Congolese national and local authorities along with their security and defense officers who are deployed by thousands (about 20,000 soldiers) in Beni, but without any positive results.

Also, at every step of their advancement towards Beni, these Mai-Mai wanted to be truly "patriotic" by showing their willingness to submit in collaboration with public institutions: at their offset in Lubero, they have requested official permission for traveling from the Administrator of the territory. At Butembo, they wanted to confirm this good intention in fulfilling the same formalities with the Mayor of this city before beginning the descent into Beni.

However, the gossips of the national army deployed for concerns other than the return of peace in Benilubero rather have unsuccessfully tried to neutralize them in Butembo. In the balance sheet, a FARDC soldier killed, others have been wounded, said military and weapons seized (including a rocket launcher) by the Mai-Mai. As for Mai-Mai, no casualties. On the civilian side, the FARDC launched a rocket shells at a school, causing several deaths and injuries including students and teachers. Yet these Mai-Mai are armed with stones, slingshots, sticks, spears, bows, arrows and machetes.

This obstacle did not prevent Mai-Mai to pursue their goal toward Beni where countless multitudes of people awaited them as hero. So it is with the king and princes honor the patriots from Mai-Mai were received in Beni and Butembo on Saturday, October 15, 2016.

This enthusiasm was further strengthened when these patriots presented themselves as "Bakombozi" Swahili term meaning "the liberators."

In Beni, about two thousand (2,000) young people soon joined them to immediately initiate the search of the bush and forests that serve as the murderers hiding areas in the outskirts of the city. Among the first results of this search, it records the successive discovery of three camps of cutthroats they had each time to abandon at the approach of the brave patriots accompanied by local youth.

With this determination, the Mai-Mai have resolved to erect their camp in the bush, in the forest of death, to permanently stop other cutthroats overflow into the city.

The population, meanwhile, engaged a maximum collaboration with these patriots. Spontaneous contributions were immediately initiated to provide support to the "liberators" of food and clothing.

However, it was noted with disappointment the following facts:

– Camps of cutthroats unearthed were always close to FARDC positions or camps, as if they shared their jungle of life with these Congolese soldiers;

– Every time the cutthroats who had freshly left their camp sought asylum in the area covered by Congolese government troops, specifically in the radius of the Command Headquarters of Sokola 1 / south based in Nyaleke;

– How murderers freshly  left their camps before the advance of the Mai-Mai betrayed a leak of information on the progress of Mai-Mai by intruders (collaborators of butchers) who hide among the population or institutions;

– General Fall Sikabwe, who was in the town of Beni, fled before the peaceful entry of the Mai-Mai which local people applauded the arrival;

– Tanzanian peacekeepers present had solicited of the FARDC to enjoy the courage of Mai-Mai who had just arrived to push up as far as possible with the search of enemies that have multiplied these days of attacks and massacres at the heart of the town of Beni, but the FARDC, on order of Fall Sikabwe, were banned of any movement towards the bush against the killers;

– Instead, Sunday, October 16, 2016, officers from 1 Sokola, gathered around Fall Sikabwe to plan how to decimate the Mai- Mai, who decided to establish a safety belt, from the same forest, to protect the city against any attempt at a new incursion of cutthroats.

This phenomenon from Mai-Mai, as it was observed this last weekend in Lubero, Butembo and Beni, indicates a scandalous vacuum of state authority.

Great yet is the fear of government manipulators, even those who carry out massacres of Beni, divert these countrymen of their initial objectives to neutralize cutthroats, finally restoring peace in the Beni area and allow the displaced returning to work their land.

Baudouin KYAVAGHENDI
Beni

 

"It is thus understood the grave danger of any extension to the power of Joseph Kabila. Congolese worthy of the name must reject any form of transition. Indeed, given what is happening in Kivu- Ituri, any transition beyond December 2016 would allow time and resources to the Congolese government which is, obviously, an accomplice of the Rwandan occupation of Kivu-Ituri in progress "(Father Vincent Machozi, March 19, 2016, speech that earned his murder the next day)

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