"Ninjas" roam and loot in Congo's lawless Pool

At some point later in the week I'll be posting a link to my new book review, "The End of Poverty" by Jefferey Sachs. In that book Professor Sachs states that the US among other "rich" countries have already signed on the dotted line to fund programs designed to lift Africa out of extreme poverty and give it the chance to succeed that both India and China have had. The magic number is 0.7% of our GDP I believe. Mind you, we've already said we'd do this. The problem is we actually haven't. What we give Africa amounts to $.16 per person. That person has to use that $.16 to combat AIDS and malaria, acquire food, shelter and clothing, and possibly educate their young. They obviously can't and the result is what we're seeing in the Congo and the Sudan as well as what we've seen in Liberia and Rwanda. It's like we have the cure for what ails an entire continent and react by saying, "meh...let'em die." It's malign neglect and in this country if you did what we're doing to Africa to a child you'd be arrested and your child would be up for adoption (unless you live in Florida, then your child would just die).

There's a ton of blogs talking about the filibuster fight, the Minutemen, Tom Delay, and of course the new Pope. This is my fight, for as long as I have this blog and the ability to write I will keep jumping up and down and pointing at a continent on fire as much as one man with an internet connection can. No desire to "bring democracy to the world" can be taken seriously when "Ninjas" are free to attack UN convoys and child armies are as big a problem as Iraqi suicide bombers.

From Reuters: MINDOULI, Congo, April 24 (Reuters) - The U.N. convoy was meant to deliver aid and attend a soccer tournament to mark reconciliation between rebels and government forces in the Republic of Congo's troubled Pool region.
But at the first checkpoint, Pool's top official was pulled by drunken "Ninja" rebels from his car. At the second roadblock, dope-smoking, grenade-wielding fighters looted whatever aid and valuables they could find in the U.N. vehicles.

"Go and tell (President Denis) Sassou Nguesso that Pool is for the rebels and he shouldn't send his government men here, let alone in U.N. convoys," barked a rebel, who went by the name of "The Laughing Cow", as he poked grenades into the U.N. vehicles on Saturday.

The United Nations says the humanitarian emergency in this thickly-forested part of sub-Saharan Africa's fourth biggest oil producer is a forgotten crisis: where war may have ended but there is no peace.

Congo's conflict officially ended in 1999 but there were clashes several times in 2002 and 2003 between fighters based in Pool, led by the charismatic Pastor Frederic Ntoumi, and forces loyal to the president.

While the rebels say they are willing to join a disarmament process, bands of gunmen continue to pillage villages and hijack passenger and goods trains travelling through Pool, which is west of the capital Brazzaville on the way to the oil-producing coastal town of Pointe Noire.

Few in Mindouli, a dusty town several kms (miles) down the rutted, red dirt road from the Ninja checkpoints, were surprised by the harassment, saying that's a taste of reality in Pool.

"This is what people here have to endure every day each time they try and travel by road or take the train to the coast or the capital," said an aid worker in the town.

PLENTY OF WEAPONS

Congo is an oil-rich nation attracting millions of dollars of investment but analysts question the government's capacity and will to resolve the festering crisis in Pool.

Many in the convoy said the roadblock was symptomatic of the problem -- a government that cannot control the territory and bands of armed youths roaming around the region with little leadership, hope or education but plenty of weapons.
Aid workers said the pillaging and lack of roads, many of which have disappeared into the red earth and thick scrub, leave Pool's residents with few options other than subsistence farming which just entrenches their poverty.

The "Ninja" rebels, named after ancient Japanese warriors glamourised by Hollywood, have shaved the trademark Rasta-style dreadlocks they had vowed to keep until the end of the war.

But the looters, some barechested, some barefoot, others in football shirts, drugged, holding Kalshnikov assault rifles, knives, machetes and grenades, still looked menacing.

They scattered into the bushes with their booty when bursts of automatic gunfire announced the arrival of their superiors, sporting purple scarves and Rasta-style woolly hats even though their tresses have now been shorn.

In Mindouli, a town bristling with government soldiers to protect a minister who flew in by helicopter to watch the soccer games, a senior government official played down the problems.

Paul Ngoma -- deputy to the man dragged from his car by the rebels a few hours earlier before being released -- said he was in control and the government was tackling the problem.

"Of course there are a few bandits who try and take advantage of the situation but in general the situation is very calm," he said.

"I think a forgotten crisis is a too strong. We represent the state and we are regulating the situation."