Lights and shadows
Time passes and another week ends.
Last
Friday I went to Bocaranga, and the next day to Koui, 170 km from
Bozoum. The village, occupied by the rebels of Sidiki's 3R movement, was
fairly quiet. I came here a month ago with the bishop, and I came back
to make one of the promises made: helping out schools and their
teachers.
About
twenty schools, spread over a radius of about ninety kilometres, there
are 60 teachers who work to educate over 4,000 children. There is only
one official teacher, and all the others are "maitres-parents": teaching
aids, young people and adults from the village who do what they can to
give some education. They often work all year without the village
community giving them anything...
Thanks to the support of the NGO Cordaid (the Dutch Caritas) we are able to give a
small monthly contribution of 15,000 francs (about 22 euros). It’s only
a small amount but it is quite a lot for the families of the teaching
aids.
The
village of Koui is quiet, and the teaching aids are very happy. I met
with them and explained the meaning and conditions of this contribution,
and returned to Bozoum in the evening.
After this brief snippet of light and hope, a lot of bad news arrived the following days.
On
Sunday night, Sister Ines, a 77-year-old Spanish nun, was killed in
Nola, 600 km from Bozoum. Probably an act of banditry or possibly a
ritual killing...
And
on Tuesday and Wednesday, despite the recent peace accords in Khartoum
(or perhaps because of them?), some rebel groups went out and committed
various attacks and massacres: in Paoua (140 k from Bozoum) there were
30 deaths. The 3R rebels (the same who are situated in Kouui) attacked
Loura (170 km) where they killed more than 20 people, and in Bohong they
left at least 30 victims.
And in the meantime, the destruction of gold mining continues without disruption...
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| Scuola di Sambai école de Sambai |
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| Koui |
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| cappella di Ferme Sarki Chapelle de Ferme Sarki |
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