It was Tuesday evening, a few hours after the M23 rebels had captured – or rather, walked into – Goma. While the situation had calmed down, it was immediately clear that Rubavu had been profoundly affected by days of fighting in its neighbor on the other side of the Rwanda-DRC border.
For one, none of the five persons whose contacts I had obtained was actually anywhere near Rubavu. Like many other residents of the town, they had taken the precaution of putting themselves out of potential harms way.
That was mainly triggered by events the previous weekend, when several rockets had landed on Rwandan territory, killing two and injuring another seven civilians according to security officials in Rubavu.
Transport companies smelled a deal, hiking the fares to Kigali from Frw 3000 to 10,000. Among those remaining behind, many resorted to getting drunk to distract themselves.
One of those still stuck in Rubavu was Charles Izidoro, the neighbor of one of my contacts. Not that he hadn’t wanted to leave, he admitted. “I didn’t have the money, so I tried to sell some of the spare parts I have in stock in my garage business, but I failed to get a buyer.”
While many Rubavu residents wanted to get out of town, those of Goma on the other hand had wanted to get in. At around 6 pm, several white expatriates from NGOs in the DRC were hanging around at the Rwandan side of the border, having fled the capital of North Kivu after fighting broke out several days earlier. With the capture of the town by the rebels, and fighting having stopped six hours earlier, they came to take stock of the situation.
If they were counting on getting back into Goma, they were disappointed. At the small Congolese border post, the officials told me they were under strict instructions from the rebels not to let anyone through, to prevent looting. “Come back tomorrow, that’s when everyone will be free to move in,” he advised me.
Superintendent Felix Bizimana, the district police commander of Rubavu, agreed that would be the best thing to do. “The situation is now calm as you can observe, but I would suggest you wait until tomorrow to cross into Goma because we aren’t entirely sure what is ahead of us here,” he said in one of the rare moments he wasn’t on the phone talking to his superiors in Kigali.