Printed on August 27, 2007 National Geographic Channel

Recently in Africa Category

Closing days in the Congo

By explorer

September 12, 2008 10:25 AM

Below are the final excerpts from Justus Rinnert's expedition to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Justus Rinnert

Pilot, Aviation Without Borders

First Contact with the Outside Dr. Nono and his staff arrive and with their little motorcycles whisk us out of this male misery of green rags and sun-baked armory. We have brought some supplies along with us. During a healthy meal of fufu, cassava leaves and grilled river fish we listen to them in awe. About the looting ram-page that went on. The fear ingrained in the local population. About the soldiers requisitioning everything, from foodstuff and equipment to women who are forced to follow their masters everywhere. Or about the major who got sick, who had ordered the MSF doctors to come and look after him, and then got so upset about them showing up late, that he threatened never to let the Cessna land again - there by cutting himself off from much needed healing. After the meal, Jacques and I insist that we must depart. We leave for the airstrip to prepare the plane for take-off.

***

His Face Trembles
The midday sun is beating down on the airfield. A stone's throw away on the veranda of the decrepit colonial terminal building, the soldiers are hiding from the heat. Their eyes are fixed on us. I make out the outline of a young soldier who has got up and is now walking slowly towards us. He has bare feet, is wearing a green T-shirt with army fatigue pants. As he starts to speak I notice some marks on his cheeks and forehead, his face trembles. He is about to cry. He is sick. What does he want? Clearly, he can't be asking for money or a lift out of here in front of everybody. He is putting words together one by one. His French is simple but becomes increasingly more fluent. Ready to mock him in the routine distrust I have of any military person, fortunately I check myself. He begs us to listen to what he has to say. He wants to talk. These are his words:

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Ten Explorer Facts You Need to Know About the Democratic Republic of Congo

By explorer

September 12, 2008 9:39 AM

From war torn communities to water shortages to lack of food resources, many African countries today are in trouble. One of those countries is the Democratic Republic of Congo. DRC has seen conflict for decades and, while the UN has a presence there, its civilian population is still suffering. Below are ten facts about the country to help separate myth from reality.

• The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the deadliest conflict since World War II . More people have died there than in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Darfur combined . An average of 1200 people die every day in the Congo as a direct result of the conflict of conflict-related issues. Based on these figures, a Tsunami occurs every six months in the DRC.

• The United Nations (UN) has based around 17,000 troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo, making it the largest United Nation mission in the world.

• The DRC contains some of the largest deposits of copper, cobalt, diamonds and gold. 22% of the world's industrial diamonds come from the DRC, which makes DRC the largest share of the world's. Despite its wealth, almost a third of the population only eats once a day.

• Corruption is one of the biggest killers in this country. A World Bank survey carried out in 2006 revealed that when asked how they would treat the state if it was a person, many Congolese replied" "Kill him.

• The official monthly salary of a soldier is $22 a month (or less than one dollar US a day), forcing them to look for other ways to make money.
People of the DRC

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Remember me

By explorer

September 11, 2008 11:18 AM

Justus Rinnert, an experienced pilot, left the private sector and decided to join Aviation Without Borders (Aviation Sans Frontières) in Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo. He is now flying for ECHO Flight, an humanitarian organization funded by European Commission to transport aid and humanitarian workers in the DRC. Here, he describes to us the suffering of a young Congolese soldier whom he met by chance on the tarmac.

Justus Rinnert

Pilot, Aviation Without Borders

Destination - Basankusu! Jacques and I are flying, Dr. Maxime sitting behind us. With wide open skies and a nice tailwind for the 207. The never-ending broccoli below us, smooth as a green ocean. Once in a while the winding pattern of small pristine rivers, meandering black water, half hidden beneath the massive trees.

Then, from a distance, Basankusu on a lovely quiet river, surrounded by the forest, a lonely church in red brick, a few huts and houses, a gravel airstrip. The last time we landed, the ground-to-air machine gun was pointed at us; this time they seem to trust us more.

After shutting off the engine, friendly greetings and welcomes from the heavily¬ armed Ugandan soldiers. Then, Bemba's, the rebel leader's, Antonov lands and taxies in. The Russian pilot jumps out and lights a cigarette. Out of nowhere a straight line of two dozen boy soldiers appears, in ragged shorts, running in military formation towards the rear exit. They immediately start unloading hundred-pound bags of rice and peas. Ugandans and a few Congolese soldiers with their submachine guns are looking on. Everybody around seems wrapped in heavy sheets of humid heat.

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A rough start in Goma

By explorer

June 23, 2008 2:13 PM

Naomi Schwarz

National Geographic Television

I crowd into the tiny bit of shade on a curb next to Goma’s airport building, already mostly filled with a tripod bag, a camera case, my bag, the producer’s backpack, some empty water bottles, and Brent, the print photographer for the NG magazine story, and Mick, the producer. Just as I sit down, I look over to where Erin, the cameraman, is setting up the camera and tripod. A man in a uniform is zeroing in. I jump up to join Erin to try to stave off the confrontation before it starts. It’s 12:30 pm, and we’re awaiting the arrival of Paulin Ngobobo, the key witness in the prosecution’s case against those accused of illegal charcoal trading and the massacre of six members of a gorilla family known as the Rugendo Group. He’s been reassigned to Kinshasa, Congo’s capital city, all the way across the country, but he’s flying back today to testify in a closed hearing. We’ve been here for about an hour already, but the plane is going to be an hour late. Or it might have been cancelled. Or else it wasn’t supposed to arrive until two. Ish. What I’m saying is, Paulin, the arriving witness, has texted a contact here to say he’s on a plane and it’s heading towards Goma. He’ll get here. In the meantime, we’re trying to hold our ground at the airport. Our fixer, Ferdinand, the local contact who managed to arrange permission for us to film here at the airport, is busy a few feet away. He and the airport hostess assigned to keep us company are arguing with a couple other guys who claim to be airport staff. Ferdinand is waving around the documents and letters he painstakingly gathered over the last day and a half giving us the right to enter onto the tarmac to film Paulin’s arrival. Erin’s new adversary arrives, and demands to know what we’re doing.

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Heading to the Congo…

By explorer

June 19, 2008 3:00 PM

Naomi Schwarz

National Geographic Television

I’m not quite sure how to handle Rwanda. We’re not staying. We’ve flown into Kigali, the capital, but we’re on our way to Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Goma is one of the biggest cities in eastern Congo, and it’s just over the border from Rwanda. We’re going there to film a documentary about wildlife conservation in Virunga National Park, the first national park in Africa, and one of the world’s most diverse and fragile ecosystems.

It’s the home of more than half of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas, several of whom were massacred last year in what seemed to be a cold-blooded execution. People are telling us these killings are closely linked with the illegal trade in charcoal being conducted within the park. On the face of it this has nothing to do with Rwanda. And yet I can’t treat this stopover like any other. Not hard to figure out why. The Rwandan genocide is old news at this point, sadly superceded by the crisis in Darfur and the war in Iraq and everything else that has happened in the last 14 years. But this is the first time I’ve been here. These are the first impressions, the first images and faces and people I’ve ever seen up close to give context to the genocide that killed nearly one million Rwandans in the space of about three months.

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A purrrr-fect place to film

By explorer

June 6, 2008 1:09 PM

Jennifer Kurushima

National Geographic Television

Luxor is a beautiful city, and has a completely different atmosphere than the crowded streets of Cairo. The Nile is full of ferries, small boats, cruise ships, and of course falukas. Tall elegant hotels and restaurants along with the sites of Luxor and Karnack Temple line the East Bank of the Nile while across to the West we can see lush farmland and the Valley of the Kings. After our success in the Cairo market, our plan of action was to try our hands at catching cats in the marketplace of Luxor. We decided that the team should breakup into smaller groups with the hope that this would reduce the possibility of drawing a crowd, and frightening away the cats. One team was to stay along the main strip of the tourist market, while the other would search the areas surrounding the local’s market.

Photo: Dana Kemp

I was teamed up with Dr. Nashwa Waly from Assiut University and Dr. Susan Little from the Winn Feline Foundation to scour the streets and alleys behind the marketplace. I quickly came to appreciate Dr. Nashwa’s fluency in Egyptian Arabic as we were able to knock on people’s doors and simply ask if they owned any cats. T his was much easier than chasing them through the streets! I am impressed by the hospitality and friendliness of the Egyptian people we met. More than once, after we explained our research, they would invite us in for a cup of tea or a meal. As word spread children came running with their cats held out before them. A quick swab along the inside of the check, a photograph, and a tuna treat, and the cats were returned home, relatively unperturbed. The children seem to be exceptionally amused by our efforts and are eager to help find us cats, however, we did have to refuse the occasional puppy. Later this evening we will be riding a ferry to the west bank of the Nile to hunt for cats in a slightly more rural setting. We are expecting the cats to be more active in the dusk. I hope our good luck holds!

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Searching for felines in Egypt

By explorer

June 2, 2008 8:57 AM

Leslie Lyons

Geneticist

Our arrival into Egypt is uneventful. This is a small miracle as little does the Nat Geo production team know that one of us is afraid to fly, one of us broke down in tears when we learned about all the vaccinations we needed, two of us have never left the western United States, and I am more used to traveling alone than taking care of others on a fairly complicated expedition. I am deathly afraid of someone getting a bad scratch or bite and having to seek medical care.

Photo: Dana Kemp

It is not until the morning that I steal away to the roof of the hotel to see my first glimpses of the pyramids, through the morning hazy and fog. I am really here, a lifelong goal, to see Egypt! Coming from a small south western town in Pennsylvania, Uniontown, I never thought I would have these opportunities, I never knew scientists got to do things like this. And, all over cats! The first encounter with the cats is on the back streets of Giza, the pyramids are in the background, how totally awesome. Ha, I was a bit worried that we would not find the cats, perhaps we would have to wait until dawn or dusk, but no, they are everywhere! Look any directions and there they are, part of the background, and important part of the ecosystem as well. We are dressed in black, little scientist ninjas. We start our first approach of the cats. The children of Giza have surrounded us, we have a big camera and a big stick with a big club attached to it (the boom), 2 producers and 4 cat catchers. The cats see us stealthily approaching like a herd of elephants, they hunch-up, hiss, and run, kicking up dirt as they go. The flight instinct of the cats is strong here, we need cats that are used to people. This is not going to work, panic! How are we going to film, but really collect the samples we need for the study? Let’s start easy, let’s go to the tourist market area to start. Tune in to the premiere of Explorer: Science of Cats on June 10 at 10p to find out exactly what Leslie found while searching in Egypt.

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Recently in Africa Category

Closing days in the Congo

Ten Explorer Facts You Need to Know About the Democratic Republic of Congo

Remember me

A rough start in Goma

Heading to the Congo…

A purrrr-fect place to film

Searching for felines in Egypt

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