News from Congo, not mine, and not good

Things are getting worse in Congo again. In a story I co-wrote a few months ago—and in Human Rights Watch reports that came out just before that—was a fact that felt inevitable, that as delegations sat around tables talking their way through the finer points of peace, men in the fields were still fighting. According to formalities, there’s peace in eastern Congo, as of early this year. But on the ground, there’s anything but.

Especially now. One of the rebel groups is on the offensive again, and 100,000 people have fled their homes since August. Scott Baldauf, the staff writer for the Monitor in Africa, tells the story here.

I finally understand that thing I’ve read about in books, where hardened correspondents talk about the desperation they feel to return to the completely screwed places they’ve covered when things take a turn for the worse. It means something different when you know how that place looks in real life, and something gnaws at your gut, beckoning you back.

But for now, I’m here. I’m here, wishing to be there. Which is something those 100,000 people would probably think the stupidest thing they’ve ever heard.