I just read that Goma Airport has been
 

over-run and occupied by a Guerrilla group called M23. I read it on Al-Jazeera website, whatever that is worth. I have never heard of M23, but if anyone is going to Goma DRC they might want to call ahead, if thats possible.

M23 are Congo muitineers, but supposedly the UN forces still hold the airport. Like you said, best to call ahead - runway might be subjected to sporadic sprinklings of mortar shells.

Goma falls to Congo rebels | World news | guardian.co.uk

Thanks for the source AdamCG
 

I never would have heard about this had I not read Al-Jazeera. We in the States are getting like the Russians were in 1965. Blind to everything except what we are spoon fed.

I miss Africa, but I don't things like this.

Apparently there is sh1t going on in Kisangani as well. Our flight there was cancelled due to rioting going on.

I feel your pain...
 

I was driving to school in Marlboro, Vermont, population 931, when I heard about Goma, on National Public Radio, their re-broadcast of some obscure overseas network called "the BBC..."

I dunno what BBC means, Bavarian Broadcasting Company or something like that, but the guy had a real funny accent, sort of like he had a plum in his mouth, and he stuttered a lot.... Anyway, yes, he mentioned that thing about the M23 and how they had marched into Goma unopposed.

It might be very hard cheese for anyone landing at the airport in the near future, since they might be met by a "technical" as a not-exactly "FOLLOW ME" but a "YOU AH UNDAH ARESS!" vehicle. Personally, I never worried about that sort of thing very much, except for the few times I had been unavoidably detained in various African beauty spots.

My cousin went to the London airport on the M25 once and he said that was "a nightmare," so if the M23 is anything like that then I guess it must be pretty bad.

Nowadays "I don't things like this" either, but if I ever get back to Africa I will be sure to let you know how it's going nowadays, Mr. Spike. Meanwhile, enjoy the company of your fellow tards here in the stupid old US of A. Keep that bib on, buddy, and stand by for more "spoon feedings!"

Several things BBC might stand for, and surprised that US public broadcasting is using it as a reliable source. I thought they had higher standards than that.

Bolshevik Brainwashing Corporation probably sums it up best.
Or Babble, Bullsh1t and Communism.
Or combine the two for Brainwashing, Bolshevism and Communism.

No longer impartial, I fear, our dear old BBC. The above may be a bit overstated but its far too close to the truth for comfort.

Yes, but!
 

One does get news of the outside world that way, Old Boy!

The local networks usually have stuff about someone spotting a possum up a tree or a raccoon being trapped in the engine compartment of someone's Subaru. That is all that passes for news in the wilds of southern Vermont, that and news about how to make wine from your old sandals in the name of "recycling."

Ah, so you've tried Ugandan waragi then...:E

More relief flights to Goma?
 

Looks like another increase in humanitarian need shaping up. UN/ICRC contracts will probably be required soon. Airstrip still held by blue-helmets whom seem to remain unmolested. I would say prepare to start hauling beans.

Congo Violence: Tens Of Thousands Of Civilians Flee Goma (PHOTOS)

Oh well if the airport there is now closed it will make flying in the Congo a hell of a lot safer. :}

Now I hear; The people of Goma are being forced out to nobody knows where.

Sounds to much like the Cambodian killing fields. What the hell is going on down there? Somebody needs to check this out!

Where the hell are all the brave journalists now??

Relax a little...
 

Hey, Temp, cool it. M23 are not (yet) the Khmer Rouge. Compared to the Army of the DRC the rebels are pretty disciplined. They are pulling back from Sake and Goma now, and will likely sit tight on the old front lines north of the city. The UN are still in Goma and the surrounding areas, and there's been no reports of conflict between M23 and the UN.

Good current reporting here:

M23 rebels in slow retreat from Goma - DR CONGO - FRANCE 24

There are dozens of "brave journalists" in Goma, and have been since before M23 got within 20 kms of the city. Most of us who are interested in the region have been keeping a close eye on M23 since early this summer when they first started moving south towards Goma.

I understand that in rural Vermont you might not get the latest news from Goma on the radio. In truth, we don't get much latest news from rural Vermont where I live.

But the amazing worldwide interweb is a good place to start, if you want to find out what's going on out here...

UN OBSERVERS REPORT FROM VERMONT!
 

A force of raccoons has infiltrated southern Vermont, report UN observers. "We are not doing nothing about this; we only observe. What you want from us anyway?" reported one UN observer. He went on to observe that, according to his observations, a dual-pronged, slow-moving, but relentless advance has seen the trees and streams of one quiet village in southern Vermont now occupied by masked intruders that operate by night, terrorizing residents by making sneak attacks upon their trash cans and even invading their Subarus.

"Yesterday," he told our team of reporters, "we had to dispatch a team of six observers to the local post office to observe a raccoon in the engine compartment of Jessica B.'s rusty Subaru Outback, the one with 'No Blood for Oil!!!' stickers plastered all over it. Having observed the invader, we closed the bonnet and slowly walked away. Mission Accomplished!"

Jessica B. was in hysterics, according to our reporter. Weeping, she said, "I feel that my personal space has been invaded! I only wanted to check why this little red light has been on, something about 'oil pressure,' but when I went to look, there it was! It was looking at my breasts! With its male gaze! Someone should do something! Now I need aromatherapy!"

Well, that sort of selfless sacrifice (should that be "self promotion"?) is what we pay all those $000.000,000 to the UN for, isn't it.

I'm sure it represents good value in reducing the incidence of racoon molestation that is terrorising the civilised world. I hear they're making progress in Vermont too.

GOMA - Where Humanitarism Equals Business!
 

With the pull out of M23 rebel forces from Eastern Congo's provincial capital of Goma both Monusco(UN) and local Air Transport Companies can breathe a collective sigh of relief and pray for a quick return to business as usual.
For their part the UN has been saved the embarrassment of Goma's Sunday afternoon walkathon where M23 forces entered the city un-opposed by those who are paid and mandated to stop rebel forces using Congo's mineral resources to bring suffering to the people of Eastern Congo.
UN flights have resumed since the ceasefire, allowing the world’s largest ever peacekeeping operation to once again dominate the skies of DRC and justify their enormous budget and exaggerated salaries unhindered.
As for the local companies who traffic the minerals such as cassiterite and coltan from the mines in places such as Walikale and Kasesse this whole sorry saga and the "negotiated settlement" between the Government and the rebels will almost certainly include the resumption of this illicit trade in human misery that was suspended earlier this year by DRC's Prime Minister Matata Mpoyo prompting this crisis in the first place.
One thing is for sure - Goma will still be a dangerous runway to operate in and out of with the German Co-operation's recuperation and rehabilitation of 500 meters of the old runway which has remained covered with lava for the last 10 years seemingly taking longer to achieve than the East German's took to build the Berlin Wall.:mad:

So why are all the people being forced out of Goma? Where are they going?

As far as relief flight crews and engineers making money, they SHOULD make money. Never heard such gall. These people are not rich you know. It’s not cheap nor easy to become qualified, licensed and proficient. The money for relief flights comes from outside Africa. A heck-of-a-lot of it stays in Africa. African needs money.

population movement
 

Temp,

Where did you read that "all the people are being forced out of Goma?" As far as I can establish, the rebels who came into Goma a week ago are leaving Goma, under the terms of a peace treaty agreed between regional leaders in Kampala. There are several thousand refugees from other conflicts/economic migrants/ people displaced by volcanic activity / people who want to live in Goma but can't afford to, who all live (and have lived for twenty years) in refugees camps just north of Goma; they usually pack up and move everytime a new armed group comes through their camps (I think this is the fifth time in six years, but I may have lost count).

As far as I can tell, most of the population of Goma, Masisi, and Sake have stayed put, kept their heads down, got on with their lives, and not been hurt. Best figures I can find suggest that approx 150 rebels were killed in the advance since July; a handful of government soldiers were killed (most surrendered or ran away). The government in Kinshasa claim M23 have killed 64 civilians, but I've not seen that corroborated by witnesses on the ground.

RCSA It was CNN. Rapes, familes separated, M23 taking all the food, that sort of thing and people leaving Goma. People are afraid of M23 is the gist.

So this M23 is U.S. sponsered?

UN vs Humanitarian Relief Flights....
 

Temp I think you may have been out of Africa for too long....
The UN(Monusco) as it is know in DRC has NOTHING to do with humanitarian Relief flights whatsoever - this is complete nonsense.
Relief organisations such as UNHCR, ICRC, WFP etc are involved in helping people with food, medicine and shelter among other things...and for the most part they do amazing work in difficult conditions AND do it with a fraction of the budget of their Monusco counterparts.
Monusco is mandated "to use all necessary means to carry out its mandate relating, among other things, to the protection of civilians, humanitarian personnel and human rights defenders under imminent threat of physical violence and to support the Government of the DRC in its stabilization and peace consolidation efforts."
So you see absolutely NOTHING in there about humanitarian relief flights just a mandated occupation of yet another African country that FAILS to fulfull ANY or ALL of it's stated objectives.

edited for cause

Don't take CNN at face value...
 

Mr. Spike, I don't think anyone is trolling you. What you are told by CNN might be very different from African reality. Well, I think that is what some people here are trying to make you understand!

There is not often much difference between "rebels" and "government troops." Both can simply be predatory rabble with guns, a threat to the peasantry who are exploited by all. Might you be thinking that one side represents law and order? If so, then, no, you probably haven't spent any time in Africa.

Ten years chuks and I don’t take any kind of journalist/media at face value. However these explinations have absolutly nothing to do with any of my comments. I don’t give a damn about the soldiers from either side, but I have seen enough African slaughter to have sympathy for those under threat. That is pointedly the core of my questioning. I am trying to find out what is happening to the people in Goma.

I did a charter flight into Elizabethville (Lubumbashi) with a Piper Astec back in 1966. Just down the road from Goma. I was a very worried person then with all those soldiers around.

Almost 50 years later, nothing has really changed, has it?

All in the name of "Uhuru" :ugh:

DRC soldiers/police get peanuts as salary if they are lucky - the more usual case money has disappeared in someones else pocket. Unsurprisingly that eats the motivation of standing in front of bullets M23 (or whatever the opportunistic militia this time is called). Stupid western media is busy inventing political reasons for the militia, when probably the only agenda is to make the leaders of movement rich.

The great tragedy is: The thing UN is so worried about, Rwanda taking over east congo - would probably be the best thing happened to the area ever. A capital under 100 miles away could make more sense than capital over 1000 miles away behind a roadless jungle...

But no, clearly it's more important to keep colonial borders.

That's the part about the UN that worries me. When independence came to Indonesia they got Irian Jaya, because it had been part of the Dutch East Indies. That way, one set of colonial masters was simply replaced with another set, arguably worse than the previous one!

In some cases, the UN appears to be worse than useless, such as how Unesco fell into line behind that vile little toe-rag Arafat. Brrr!

Here at school, among a crowd of starry-eyed idealists, I often feel like a visitor from some strange planet. The professor of African Politics asked me over lunch about "the future of Nigeria," when, after all of two seconds to think, I blurted out that "they are f@cked!"

"What? What did you just say?!"

"Uhh, doomed, they are doomed!" (The liberal mind-set at work: she heard me just fine. I don't mumble. But, what I said, no, no, no... one cannot say that about Nigeria; it just has to have a bright future, in the face of all the very obvious facts about a teeming population living hand-to-mouth off their oil.)

Then she told me about a conference in a wonderful new capital, Abuja, that she attended, how it was chock-full of young people with tremendous ability and promise, and how if Africa goes then we go too, and all that sort of hooey.

I told her that I was counting on the Mediterranean and the Atlantic to help with that one. She never bothered to speak to me again. I have no idea why.

Here, Mr. Spike, you are being twitted about ignorance of the situation behind the headlines, one that is very different from what you may think it is. Even if you adjust by 50% from what CNN is saying, that still leaves you laughably far from the truth of so much of Africa. I am sure that you mean well, but Africa is very different from what you seem to think it is.

Goma
 

Temp - look, buddy, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you weren't accusing me of being a troll. And I really hope you weren't accusing Mobutu of being a troll, as he is one of the very few on this site who know what he's talking about ref: DRC.

If you are interested, I propose you read this:

In Rebel Country - By James Verini | Foreign Policy

Which is a pretty good eye-witness account of the situation on the ground; and re-read Mobutu's first post in this thread, which cuts straight to the chase. It's about minerals and the control of mining and trading. That's all.

CNN? CNN International (which is about 60% reliable?) or CNN domestic, which is probably 10% or less reliable?

Anyway, enough on this subject. Ten years in Africa? Maybe ten years in a camp compound - maybe Loki? Hanging out at the bar drinking Tusker with aid workers and pilots, and spooks and hacks and the rest? There are lot of different Africas out here, bud, and the bar at Trackmark or 748 or Kate's is not always the best place to see them from.

Anyway kwaheri sana, rafiki.

The very reason why I have been asking is because I don’t believe CNN. I think you can read that much into my questions. Best I have is some VOA dude’s social media posts, which is very incomplete.

I can’t believe Mobotu is going to lay down and cry because I called him/her a troll. It came from the Monusco comment. Never believed Monusco had anything to do with relief flights. I have no confusion with govt./rebels and Monusco. I know the fighting is over raw minerals harvested by virtual slave labor. The assumption error was Mobotu’s, not mine. I don’t need the lecture.

However, I did have a senior moment. My apologies Mobotu.

rcsa, you gave me the best information and I thank you for it. There is a lot of truth in what you say, but not the whole truth. I have more African experiences than my years in Loki. Though I was there years before there was ever a South African there, because there was a Kenyan embargo against apartheid. Indeed I welcomed the first and he wasn’t even in Aviation, (though he pretended to be), then later a few that were. I was even there before Bob McCarthy was running the UN camp which was little more than a few tents at the time. In fact the only African operator was Kenyan “Safari Air” for excess carriage from NBO only. Overtime I had been paid by four operators out of Loki, all “expat” but one was African….South African.

On the ground in Goma....
 

Apology accepted Temp (Actually my Troll was more offended than I was) - Thanks rcsa for your vote of confidence and chuks for making me laugh out loud!
I have flown for the UN, UNHCR, ICRC, WFP.....and some others that require several shots of Whisky to remember and my opinions are based on these experiences.
I was in Kivu during the crisis and in contact with friends and colegues on the ground in Goma and the situation is not good for the local population.
The main reason the population want to leave Goma by foot if they have to is the shortage of food and inflated prices for basic items.
Coupled to that most of the work in Goma centers around NGO's or minerals trading to which both have been abandoned since the arrival of the M23 rebels.
Banks are closed as well so even if you have money in your account you cannot gain access to it to draw on the savings you have to feed your family.
Also without the Police to "Protect" the local population the M23 rebels are free to go door to door mostly at night taking whatever they wish including women and young girls.
If you have money you can cross into Gisenyi(Rwanda) and stay there else like the majority of Goma's residents you can neither flee south/west towards Bukavu nor north to where the fighting began in the first place.
keitaidenwa - the ONLY reason the UN are worried about Rwanda taking control of the Kivu is DRC's president would give them 48 hours to LEAVE the country and bring an end to their 10 year junket:mad:

Thank You Mobotu.

M23 is not getting very good press here now. Looks like another violent mess brewing. I’m curious to know how extensive the relief NGOs are set up in the area.

I watch/read Fox News and Al-Jazeera the most. Al-Jazeera is the most balanced news outlet that I know of. Fox News is usually interesting and often hilarious.

I heard that the authorities didn't want the Goma runway rebuilt/repaired, because then much larger aircraft could coming in carrying many more troops/guns...and they wanted to keep outside military ops away from the area.

Cable News is crap these days IMO.