HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS FLEE

After being evacuated to Kenya from Rwanda in April 1994, Henk van Bussel, a missionary who had been assigned to Rwanda in 1992, made trips to Goma, in eastern Congo, to help with the relief program for Rwandan refugees. On the Congo side, the brothers patrolled the border crossings, holding up Bible literature and singing or whistling Kingdom songs so that Witnesses crossing from Rwanda would recognize their brothers.

Panic was widespread. As war waged between the government forces and the Rwandan Patriotic Front, hundreds of thousands of people fled to Congo and Tanzania. The rallying point for the brothers who fled to Goma was the Kingdom Hall. Later, a refugee camp was set up just outside of town, which would shelter more than 2,000 people​—exclusively Jehovah’s Witnesses, their children, and interested people. The brothers established similar camps in other parts of eastern Congo.

Whereas the people who fled were mainly Hutu who were fearing reprisals, the brothers who fled together were Hutu and Tutsi. Getting the Tutsi across the border into Goma was very dangerous, since the killing of Tutsi continued. At one stage, the cost of smuggling Tutsi brothers out of the country was $100 (U.S.) per person.

Once they were in Congo, the brothers wanted to stay together. They wanted nothing to do with the Interahamwe, who were active in the camps set up by the United Nations. In addition, most of the non-Witness refugees were sympathetic toward the outgoing government. Jehovah’s Witnesses were not liked by them, particularly the Interahamwe, because they had not joined with them. The brothers wanted to keep separate so that they could also protect their Tutsi brothers.

Since those who fled from Rwanda had left their belongings behind, they needed help. That help came from Jehovah’s Witnesses in Belgium, Congo, France, Kenya, and Switzerland, in the form of money, medicine, food, and clothing as well as doctors and nurses. On one of the first relief flights, many small tents arrived that had been sent by the France branch. Later, the Belgium branch sent bungalow tents, which could house whole families. Field beds and inflatable air beds were also sent. The branch in Kenya responded by sending more than two tons of clothing and more than 2,000 blankets.

THE CHOLERA OUTBREAK

After fleeing from Rwanda, more than 1,000 Witnesses and interested people stayed at the Goma Kingdom Hall and on the adjoining plot of land. Tragically, as a result of the large number of refugees, there was an outbreak of cholera in Goma. The Congo (Kinshasa) branch quickly sent medicine to combat the epidemic, and Brother Van Bussel flew from Nairobi to Goma with 60 cartons of medicine. The Kingdom Hall was temporarily used as a hospital, and efforts were made to isolate the sick. Loic Domalain and another brother, both medical doctors, along with Aimable Habimana, a medical assistant from Rwanda, gave of themselves unsparingly. Brother Hamel from France was also of great help during all those problems as were the many other brothers and sisters with medical experience who came as volunteers to care for the sick.

Despite the great efforts made to prevent it, more than 150 brothers and interested people were infected, and about 40 died before the spread of this deadly disease could be checked. Later, a large plot of land was rented, which would be used as a refugee camp for Jehovah’s Witnesses. Hundreds of small tents were set up, and a large tent sent from Kenya served as a hospital. American health workers who visited were impressed by the cleanliness and orderliness of the camp.

By early August 1994, the relief committee in Goma was caring for 2,274 refugees​—Witnesses, children, and interested people. At the same time, there were many other refugee brothers in Bukavu and Uvira, eastern Congo, as well as in Burundi. Another 230 were in a refugee camp in Tanzania.

When the brothers from the translation office in Kigali were obliged to flee to Goma, they rented a house so that they could continue translation. This work was possible because the brothers had managed to save a computer and a generator during the war and they moved them from Kigali to Goma.

In Goma, telephone and mail services were virtually nonexistent. However, with the help of Witnesses working at the airport, the brothers sent translation material and other mail on a weekly flight from Goma to Nairobi. Brothers at the Kenya branch returned mail to Goma in the same way.

Emmanuel Ngirente and two other translators continued to translate as best they could, though the circumstances were difficult. They had to skip articles of The Watchtower because of the war, but the skipped articles were later translated and published in special brochures that the brothers studied at their Congregation Book Study.

LIFE IN THE REFUGEE CAMPS

While the population was still fleeing from Kigali, Francine, who had fled to Goma after the murder of her husband, Ananie, was transferred to one of the camps set up by the Witnesses. She describes life in the camp: “Each day some brothers and sisters were assigned to prepare food. We prepared a simple breakfast consisting of millet or maize gruel. We also prepared the midday meal. After performing our duties, we were free to share in the field service. We witnessed mainly to family members in our own camp who were not Witnesses and also to those living outside the camp. After some time, however, the Interahamwe militiamen, who were in other camps, were angry to see the Witnesses in camps that were separate from the other refugees, and the situation became dangerous.”

By November 1994, it became clear that it was safe for the brothers to return to Rwanda. Doing so, in fact, was advisable in view of the insecurity in the non-Witness camps in Congo. But the return would be difficult. The Interahamwe were hoping to regroup and attack Rwanda, and in their view anyone leaving Congo to return to Rwanda was a deserter.

The brothers informed the government in Rwanda that Jehovah’s Witnesses, who had taken a neutral stand in the war and had not participated in the genocide of the Tutsi, wanted to be repatriated. The government advised the brothers to negotiate with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which had vehicles that could be used for the repatriation. However, because the militiamen would have stopped them from returning to Rwanda, the brothers had to use strategy.

The brothers announced that there was to be a special assembly day in Goma, and assembly banners were prepared. They then secretly notified the Witnesses of the repatriation to Rwanda. So as not to arouse suspicion, the brothers were instructed to leave all their belongings behind in the camps and go with just their Bibles and songbooks as though they were going to an assembly.

Francine remembers that they walked for some hours and finally found trucks waiting to take them to the border. On the Rwanda side of the border, the UNHCR arranged to transport them to Kigali and then on to their home areas. Thus most of the brothers with their families and interested ones were repatriated to Rwanda in December 1994. The Belgian newspaper Le Soir of December 3, 1994, reported: “1,500 Rwandan refugees decided to leave Zaire [Congo] because they felt that their security was not sufficiently guaranteed. They are Jehovah’s Witnesses who had set up their own camp above the Katale camp. Jehovah’s Witnesses were particularly persecuted by the previous government because they refused to carry arms and to participate in political rallies.”

When the genocide started, I was obliged to leave the country. But soon after that, I was asked to help the refugees in eastern Congo. From Nairobi, I made the trip to Goma, a city on the border with Rwanda. Having never been there before and having no information other than the name of one elder, I wondered how I would find him. However, upon arrival, I asked for information from my taxi driver. He then conferred with other drivers, and within 30 minutes, I stood in front of the elder’s door. Two brothers from the Country Committee in Rwanda were able to cross the border into Goma, and I gave them the money I had received from the Kenya branch office to help the brothers in Rwanda.

The second time I went to Goma from Nairobi, I remember walking to the Rwanda border. Although the distance was short, it took me a long time because I was walking against a huge crowd of refugees surging across from Rwanda.

Suddenly, someone was calling my name: “Ndugu (brother) Henk! Ndugu Henk!” When I looked for the source of the voice, I looked into the eyes of Alphonsine. She was a girl of about 14 from the congregation I had belonged to in Kigali, and she had been separated from her mother. We stuck together in that vast crowd, and I took her to the Kingdom Hall that many other refugee brothers and sisters were using as a rallying point. A Congolese family looked after her, and after that, a refugee sister from her home congregation took care of her. Alphonsine was later reunited with her mother in Kigali.

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Above: Refugee camp for Rwandan Witnesses; below: refugee camp for Witnesses and others

Goma, Congo

Benaco, Tanzania

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The Kingdom Hall was used as a hospital