The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
IT is not often that one encounters a war story that ends in tears of joy.
However, from the African World War — the long running unrest in the Eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo — a beautiful love story unfolds.
In a touching turn of events whose script reads like a blockbuster Hollywood love film, 43-year-old Ngongo Kilengu and his wife, Sango Kilengu, uncontrollably wept when they unexpectedly bumped into each other at Tongogara Refugee Camp 10 years after their separation.
During the decade they were apart, both parties believed that the other one had perished in war. Ngongo has been a resident at the Tongogara Refugee Camp deep in the thickets of Chipinge South along the banks of the mighty Save River for the past 14 years.
He left his home in Southern Kivu Province, DRC, in a huff in November 2007 after more than 500 people had been massacred in less than an hour. His parents and most of his relatives died in that brutal onslaught, thereby leaving his brother in Northern Kivu Province as his only surviving relative.
Efforts to seek refuge at his brother’s place in Northern Kivu Province did not help much as militant rebels soon pounced on the area.
Poor Ngongo had to run for dear life.
He jumped from a two-storey building and sustained multiple injuries. As all this drama unfolded, Ngongo was convinced that his pregnant wife was already dead at their home.
“When I went to my brother’s place in Northern Kivu after the destruction of our area in the southern part of the province, I encountered worse problems. I had to jump from the balcony of our two-storey building as we were under ruthless attack.
“I got injured and was carried by my colleagues until I got help from someone who was on a motorbike. I was dropped at a place where I got assistance to cross into Tanzania aboard a boat. I then boarded a truck together with other asylum seekers. That is how we found our way here (Tongogara Refugee Camp).
“I was convinced that I had lost everything, including my pregnant wife,” he said.
Fast forward 10 years to 2017, Ngongo had the shock of his life as he was busy tiding up his shop. He raised his head and saw a woman who was identical to his long-lost wife in a group of women who were passing by his shop.
“I could not believe my eyes. I walked closer to the group of women. She immediately recognised me and was equally shocked.
“We instantly started crying, much to the surprise of all those who were around us. We spent about five minutes without saying a word, just crying. People who were witnessing the scene started sensing our story. They started consoling my wife.
“We hugged passionately, then sat down and started conversing,” said Ngongo.
As fate would have it, none of the two had move on as they had both clung to the memories of their love so passionately.
In another tearful encounter, Ngongo had to meet his first child for the first time at the refugee camp. After the reunion, the couple has been blessed with two more children.
However, an emotional Sango could not talk to the media.
She quickly sneaked into the couple’s bedroom and refused to relieve the bitter-sweet memories of their separation and subsequent reunion despite our efforts to convince her to open up.
“This is one subject she does not want to talk about and I am not surprised by her reaction. You will forgive me for that. That is her character,” explained Ngongo.
The DRC, the second largest country in Africa, has been mired in conflict for decades. A country of paradoxes, it is rich in natural resources, while its people are among the poorest in the world.
DRC’s Second Congo War (also known as the Great War of Africa, the Great African War or the African World War) began in August 1998, a little over a year after the First Congo War.
Although a peace agreement was signed in 2002, with the war officially ending in July 2003 when the Transitional Government of the DRC took power, violence has continued in many regions of the country, especially in the east.
Hostilities have continued, including the ongoing Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency, as well as the Kivu and Ituri conflicts.
Ultimately, nine African countries and around 25 armed groups have been involved in the war.
By 2008, the war and its aftermath had caused 5,4 million deaths, principally through disease and starvation, thereby making the Second Congo War the deadliest conflict worldwide ever since World War II.
Another two million, including Ngongo and his family, were displaced from their homes and had to seek asylum in neighbouring countries.
