16-year-old girl’s journey into the heart of darkness

STORIES of grotesque acts of brutality or an innocence turned evil can sometimes leave you temporarily stumped as a journalist in the quest for answers.

Such was the gruesome account given by Mbo, about her time with a militia group.

Her narrative of living in the jungle in western Congo was reminiscent of passages from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the novel and symbolic story about an Englishman’s adventure through the sprawling country.