Country Without Roads

The UN has created the largest air fleet in Africa to move its troops and equipment around Congo. With elections now, it has another mammoth task moving hundreds of tonnes of voting material and thousands of personnel. The fleet isn't large enough to assist the millions of Congolese in need. LISTEN TO IRIN RADIO FEATURE TRANSCRIPT IRIN: Nature provided transport from one end of the Democratic Republic of Congo to the other: The mighty Congo River. It curls 4,374 km from near Zambia heading north and then west to the Atlantic Ocean. On the way is Congo's capital Kinshasa. At the port of Kinshasa the river is 4 km wide. Old rusty barges and tug boats move up and down with their goods. CONSTANTINOS PHILLIS (SHIPPER): You have rice, sugar, cement, beans… TRAC: That's Constantinos Phillis a Belgium Greek who heads TFCE, a transport company with 30 barges and tug boats. He’s been moving goods on this river for more than two decades.

Constantinos Phillis heads of TFCE a private barge company on the Congo

CONSTANTINOS: This is oil IRIN: This is palm oil, CONSTANTINOS: Yes palm oil IRIN: Strong smell IRIN: He says his barges get stuck on sand banks. The river hasn't been dredged in decades and needs buoys and flags to warn away boats from the shallow waters. CONSTANTINOS: Many, many problems. IRIN: His boats must also navigate government checkpoints. The 1000 kM trip between Kinshasa and Kisangani should take 15 days, he says, but with at least 20 checkpoints on the way, it takes almost twice that. Time is money, he says. That and the dangers of the Congo River make it a bad choice if you have to move urgently needed food to people displaced by conflict or move UN peacekeepers and equipment to help quell the violence. So what about roads? MICHEL BONARDEUX (UN SPOKESPERSON): Well there are no roads in this country. IRIN: That's Michel Bonardeux, a spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission here, known as MONUC. BONARDEUX: There was a network of roads that was left by the Belgiums. However there was no maintenance to them and so they've basically fallen into disrepair and it can take days, if not weeks, to actually reach an area by road. IRIN: Belgium also built railroads in their former colony.

UN air operations at Kinshasa airport for the elections

BONARDEUX:Started early in the 20 century but, again, not properly maintained. So it can also take from Lubumbashi – the southwestern most city - to Kanaga, it can take up to two weeks. IRIN: So how does MONUC get around? BONARDEUX: MONUC has had to set up a huge fleet of airplanes and helicopters, especially heavy lift helicopters the MI-26 type that can lift up to 20 tons. There aren’t airports or landing strips all over the country. We have to move tanks. We have to move armored personnel carriers. We have to move food for the contingents, water in many cases, generators - things that are extremely heavy, including building materials for military bases. IRIN: Kinshasa airport: It still lives up to its reputation. At the arrivals terminal, fist fights are breaking out as passengers try to get in, and out. On the tarmac, jammed together are dozens of aging propeller plane, painted in bright yellows, blues and purples. It looks like an African bus-station with petty traders selling cigarettes and shoe shine-boys coming up to passengers as they board their planes.

Airport at Mbuji Mayi

Walk a few minutes down the tarmac and there’s another, very different airport. Huge cargo planes and helicopters, helicopter gun ships and executive jets. All are painted pristine white with just two black letters on them: U.N. MAJOR WILLIAM LONGWE (MONUC FLIGHT COORDINATOR): We’ve got the three Ilyushin 76s. The MI8s. We have the two Boeing 727s… IRIN: Major William Longwe is in charge of planning and following MONUC flights in the Kinshasa air region. And MONUC has many other air regions in the country. MAJOR WILLIAM: There is Kisangani, there is Bandakar, Goma flight IRIN: With more than 100 planes MONUC has the largest UN fleet in the world and the largest fleet of any kind in Africa, larger than South African Airlines. Of MONUC's annual budget of $1.1 billion, almost half goes on aircraft and fuel. The planes not only carry troops and equipment but now with country's first election, they are moving thousands of the election personnel and hundreds of tons of material. The largest fleet in Africa isn’t large enough to also feed the more than 2 million people displaced by fighting in the Congo or assist with the many humanitarian crises. Often aid workers have trouble getting a seat on UN flights. So how do they get around?

Congo River near Kisangani

BENI CONTROL TOWER: 01073 North, clear take-off We’re taking off in a tiny propeller plane owned by the Christian organization called MAF - Mission Aviation Fellowship. DAVE JACKOBSEN (PILOT): Father we come before you once again. Pray that this aircraft will work the way it was intended. I pray that you give me wisdom in guiding it. This we pray in your name. Amen IRIN: The pilot Dave Jackobsen is heading for the remote village of Bolga in the troubled Ituri district in northeastern Congo. He says his primary mission is to preach the word of God JACKOBSEN: I like to look at us as missionary pilots. IRIN: But today he's delivering medical supplies. The big humanitarian organizations like the World Food Program often own or charter their own planes. But some of the UN agencies and most of the NGOs depend on whatever aviation companies they can find, and one of them is MAF. JACKOBSEN: We have Doctors Without Borders that fly with us. We fly quite a bit for Coopi. Then we fly for the UNHCR, IRIN: MAF is a non-profit company although for humanitarian organizations the service is not free. JACKOBSEN: We generally charge the humanitarian community slightly more than mission-slash-church. Whenever a church person asks to go from point a to point b I’ll give him a seat rate and something that could cost $300 or $400 I will charge him $50. But to us it’s important that that guy can go out and share the gospel because that’s what we’re all about.

Ituri District 100 km north of the captial Bunia

IRIN: Airfares for saving souls may be cheaper than airfares for saving bodies but they're all too low for the private airlines trying to compete with non-profits, says Simon Evens. He’s a Canadian pilot working for a little Belgium company operating in eastern Congo called TMK. SIMON EVANS (PILOT): It makes it difficult for other companies to come in. Nobody else is going to start anything up IRIN: He’s flying us from Goma to Bunia. That’s a route the European Union’s emergency relief organization ECHO recently started flying to after the EU’s aviation authority announced that most of the local commercial airlines do not follow established maintenance procedures and are unsafe. ECHO flights are free for humanitarian workers. Evans says that’s unfair competition for TMK which is one of the few commercial companies that IS considered safe. EVANS: We might fly in to Bunia and all of a sudden a fancy new Dash 8 comes where you can get on there for free. We get stung because we’re losing revenue. IRIN: Airlines take enormous risks flying in the Congo, he says. There are accidents sometimes twice a week even with planes that are well maintained. EVANS: There’s no air traffic control. There’s no standard operating, when the weather’s bad, good recognized companies have crashed into mountains around here. IRIN: He points out of the window to where a World Food Program plane crashed just a few weeks earlier. EVANS: It was a sad deal. IRIN: It was probably caused by weather, he says, though the various armed groups in the area do sometimes shot at planes. EVANS: When they took one of our old aircraft apart when it got to the end of its life they found bullet holes in it IRIN: The dangers of flying in the Congo only add to the costs, making Congo one of the most expensive places in the world for delivering humanitarian assistance, says MONUC’s Michel Bonardeux. BONARDEUX: As a donor you would have to question the wisdom of flying things around a thousand even two thousand kilometers. Why a bag of flour that essentially cost $8 will end up costing $25 once it's delivered. So NGOs and UN agencies have a lot of trouble convincing donors to give enough money for transport. IRIN: If, with elections, the next government is seen as legitimate and armed groups do not resume fighting, then infrastructure investment can begin for roads and train tracks and dredging the mighty Congo River. Of course it’ll take years. Until then, donors should expect to pay a high price for assisting the millions of Congolese in need. From the Democratic Republic of Congo this is IRIN Radio