Tshiabu | fleeing violence in Kazumba, Kasai, DRC

15-year-old Tshiabu is a flash of bright colour amid all her classmates in white and navy blue when I meet her at her school in Kazumba, a few hours’ drive from Kananga in Kasai Central.

However her bright top is a sign she doesn’t have a school uniform. Normally required for admission to school, this year the school district has waived the requirements. Many of the families here are struggling to make ends meet.

The primary goal of the education department is just to get children back into school. The last school year was disrupted by the violence that spread across the Grand Kasais early this year.

“It was a Thursday and it was raining,” Tshiabu begins as she describes the day in March that conflict arrived in her village. “We heard that the military were coming, so we fled to the forest. They said on the radio that the military was coming because we had members of the militia in our homes.”

“We spent three and a half weeks in the forest. It was peaceful there, but we didn’t have any homes. When it rained we got drenched.”

Tshiabu’s whole village fled together and hid until the military came and told them to come out. Babies were born in the forest, while others died from sicknesses which would normally be treatable at the health centre. Tshiabu came out of the forest in April with a new career goal – to become a doctor so she can treat people in future.

When she fled into the forest, Tshiabu’s family had already been touched by battles between the militia and military in Kasai Province.

“Papa was polygamous.” Tshiabu explained, softly. “He went to see his first wife in Tshikapa, and the war started there, while he was still in Tshikapa.”

When news of her father’s death reached the family, her Aunt travelled to Kananga to fetch Tshiabu from her mother’s house. Now she lives with her Aunt and her Aunt’s children.

“It was my father who took care of everything,” Tshiabu said. “He paid for food to eat, and clothes to wear. Now that he’s dead someone else needs to care for me.”

World Vision declared a Category III National Emergency in the Kasais in June 2017, and has been targeting 146,000 beneficiaries in the Grand Kasai region, as well as refugees who’ve fled to Angola. Initial interventions focus on food and child protection, with a fundraising goal of 2million USD. 

Working with World Food Programme we have distributed foodstuffs to more than 28,000 food insecure people in Kasai Central – these were the first food distributions in the region since the crisis began. From 12 October we will start a new wave of food distributions with WFP to provide a further 75,000 individuals with supplies through November.  In the realm of child protection and education, WV is opening six Child Friendly Spaces, conducting back to school distributions of bags and supplies, and planning education interventions which will reach over 30,000 children affected by the conflict.