Under-funded Congolese army enlists civilians to supply front line in lawless east

THE Congolese army commander screamed over the radio for more ammunition as mortars pounded down and machine gun fire rattled around him.

Several hours later, about 20 mostly barefoot villagers — offered as porters to the army by a local chief — trudged towards the front line with mortar tubes and cases of ammunition balanced on their heads.

“We can’t fight properly without civilians,” said an army officer walking with the villagers, urging them to push on to the front 16 km up through steep hills.

“We have no trucks or tanks so we have to use them to help carry our equipment,” he said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s fledgling army, backed by the UN’s largest peacekeeping mission, is trying to pacify the mineral-rich east ahead of long-awaited elections on July 30, the first democratic polls in four decades.

Some 1,000 Bangladeshi, Pakistani and South African UN peacekeepers are backing 3,000 Congolese troops in an offensive to regain control of Tchei, a rebel stronghold in Ituri district, where militia violence has killed tens of thousands since 1999.

The UN blue berets followed at a distance as Congolese soldiers led the ground assault on the town over the weekend. Fighting with heavy machine gun and mortar fire has so far killed 32 rebels, according to the army.

UN helicopter gunships hovered overhead, communicating with the troops in English, French, Swahili, Bangladeshi and Lingala.

Previous operations have been compromised by ill-disciplined Congolese soldiers, some of whom mutinied and attacked the UN after being sent to the front without enough ammunition or food in the last attempt to take Tchei.

The poorly-paid soldiers are notorious for looting and harassing people they have been sent to protect.

“They are not paid. They are not fed. But they are sent off to fight on foot,” a UN peacekeeper said.

“Of course they are going to live off the back of the population.”