Traffic snarl-up along the Malaba Highway/KNA
Three truck drivers are stuck in Goma town, where rebel militia M23 took control of the mineral-rich Eastern Congo regions of North Kivu in a conflict that has claimed at least 700 lives since war broke out last month.
The truck drivers who were caught up in the mess with transit goods from Mombasa port were among 20 other stranded drivers in the foreign country before 16 of them were evacuated to Rwanda in the rescue mission led by UN security troops in Goma.
The Kenya truck driver’s chairperson, Salim Mwatela, speaking to KNA on the phone from DRC cautioned transport companies to suspend trips to the troubled country, citing hostility and the current state of insecurity.
“I just want to appeal to transporters to suspend DRC trips as the situation at the moment is hostile and risky to drivers. Sending a driver to DRC now is like signing his death sentence,” he said.
Peter Tanui, who was in DRC just a day before war broke out.
Mwatela has sounded a firm warning to all drivers over the impending humanitarian crisis should they be a victim of the ongoing war in Goma.
“It’s costly for any driver in DRC as the prices of all essential items have already skyrocketed, with foreigners being the main target,” he added.
The sentiment was echoed by Peter Tanui, a truck driver who was lucky to have been evacuated just a day when the war began.
According to Tanui, the drivers must trade with caution as the M23 rebels are very hostile.
“Let us just keep off any trip to DRC, I must count myself lucky as the ordeal in Goma. Things are just out of proportion, as the M23 rebels are not living anything by chance,” Tanui said.
“Our colleagues who are still in the Goma report gunfire and mortar fire across the city and the presence of many dead bodies in the streets. We have reports of rapes committed by fighters, looting of property, and massive destruction which targets at drivers as the rebel want foodstuffs and cash to sustain them,” he added.
The call comes after President William Ruto convened an extraordinary regional summit on Wednesday last week to discuss the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which saw the rebel group M23 overrun the key city of Goma on Sunday.
“The situation in the DRC is a very complicated situation piling up for over 30 years attracting forces from the United Nations, SADCC, and EAC; dialogue and consultation are the only way to solve the situation,”
President William Ruto wrote on his official online account. The M23 group, one of many militias in the DRC, who have taken control of vast parts of mineral-rich eastern DRC since its resurgence in 2021.
According to the UN's refugee agency, more than 400,000 people have been forced from their homes in the provinces of North and South Kivu in the last four weeks, and the latest escalation in Goma has seen tens of thousands more people flee to neighboring towns.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is economically important to Kenya primarily as a significant export market, with Kenyan goods like coated flat-rolled iron, tobacco, and confectionery sugar being sold there, while Kenya imports mainly sawn wood, perfume plants, and coffee from DRC; this relationship is further strengthened by DRC's recent membership in the East African Community (EAC), opening up new trade opportunities and potentially increasing Kenyan investment in the region, particularly in the financial services sector.
