Georgianne Nienaber
7/25/13
he image of the face of the Congolese woman resting on the pink and blue blanket is grafted onto the frontal lobe of my brain — the repository of my knowledge of good and evil, my emotions, and my memories. It is just a face. It has no skull structure, no bones, and no body to give it context.
The face is the remnant of a person who lived in Congo before Congo Army (FARDC) helicopter gunships blew up a village by mistake in their relentless pursuit of M23 rebel forces. The woman’s soul is elsewhere, but her face offers silent testimony to atrocity. Civilian collateral damage has happened before, but this is the first time international media has recognized that something is going terribly wrong in eastern Congo. President Bertrand Bisimwa of the rebel M23 political and military movement said the attack on the rebel-held Rumangabo camp, 25 miles north of Goma, killed civilians, according to the Washington Post.