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04/04/2006:

"In a disease-ridden and stinking swamp, thousands hide from war"

...The dozen or more islands, some the size of football pitches, now provide sanctuary for thousands of victims of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s latest fighting.

They have taken refuge in this remote, mosquito-infested area of shallow lakes and marshes — the source of the great Congo river which snakes across the heart of Africa — to escape clashes between roaming militias, known as Mai-Mai, and the Congolese Army.

“The Mai-Mai came at night. They killed people. We fled in our canoes and came here, but we have lost everything,” said Kalenga wa Kalenga, 32, as she waded knee-deep to get an emergency package from Médecins sans Frontières, one of the few charities in the area.
timesonline.co.uk