Even the young are maimed and killed

MAISHA stares blankly at the hospital wall, his eyes not revealing any emotion. Sitting on the corner of a sagging ward bed, the five-year-old does not know why a heavy cast and bandages cover his right arm.

Like most children at this hour of the evening, the youngster should be outside playing.

Instead, he nurses his maimed limb, left almost powerless by two bullets that shot through his hand and upper arm.

His young mother, Silvie, looks at the x-rays of her son’s arm, her face hiding the pain of the last fortnight.

Silvie was farming the fields in the village of Kitagoma, near the Ugandan border, two weeks ago when fighting erupted between rebels and the Democratic Republic of Congo army.

Her five children had been playing outside a neighbour’s straw hut home when soldiers began exchanging fire.

The 25-year-old rushed home through the fields. But it was too late.

Her youngest, Tulinayu, was killed instantly in the crossfire. The two-year-old was shot in the head while fleeing. She found his bloodied body outside the straw hut.

She found her other boy, Maisha, injured but still alive with his limp hand dangling at the wrist.

The boy was rushed to Rutshuru’s general hospital where Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) staff bandaged his wounds.

“He has a 50% chance of being able to use his hand again,” explained field coordinator and MSF official Romain Gitenet.

Despite his injury, his mother knows Maisha, whose name means “life” in Swahili, is lucky to be alive.