Category Archives: Law and Order

What Happened in August? part 2.

These Mituku children are the real losers. Boys are forced into Maimai gangs, schools close and villages empty. This last July, the attack at Mayunga, in the eastern buffer zone, should have been the beginning of the end for the criminal Thoms Mesandu and all the worst of his gang: Mopao, Portugais, Machine, Reddi…  But then […]

Torture and Truth along the Lomami

Torture has two main purposes: (1) Create fear and pain to bring out the truth (=encouragement) (2) Create fear and pain to punish a crime committed (=dissuasion) Which was the purpose in February 2018 along the Lomami? Kesonga was arrested, beaten, and repeatedly submerged in the Lomami with a sack over his head. Kesonga climbs […]

D.R. Congo’s Giant Pangolins : Two Tons of Scales Seized

Tip of giant Pangolin tail smoked for sale. The scales were removed and sold separately to an Asian market. The market for pangolin scales is exploding in D.R. Congo. Jules (not real name) called our attention to it in 2016. He is our crime sleuth around the northern Lomami buffer zone. In the town of […]

History and Maimai west of the Lomami

Children 16 and under are half the population of Balanga West; but elders, though rare, define the community. (Here Leon with Balanga West telephone-admirers) A Balanga genealogy sounds like a litany from Old Testament Genesis or First Chronicles: The first ancestor of the village of Kandolo was Likulufe. Likulufe begat a first son Kandolo who […]