Photo: Nyasa Icyimpaye Cecile now lives in Rwanda with her children, pictured here with some of their friends. As a Rwandan refugee, she had most of her seven children alone, in the forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo while her husband fought with an armed group there. Through the work of MCC’s partner, Program for Peace and Reconciliation, Cecile, her husband and her children were able to leave the nomadic, violent life in Congo and return home to live in peace. (MCC Photo/Linda Espenshade) 

Mwasa Niyon Senga felt trapped as a first sergeant in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group that terrorizes villages in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As a Rwandan soldier during the 1994 genocide, Senga feared he would be arrested (and probably killed) as an enemy of the state if he returned to Rwanda from Congo. He had fled to Congo during the genocide as soldiers for the current government took control of Rwanda.

In Congo, he believed other FDLR combatants would kill him if he defected.

He had survived as a refugee in Congo for almost 18 years as an FDLR soldier and officer, but he was tired of hunger, sickness and constant war. He didn’t have anywhere to go.

His wife Nyasa Icyimpaye Cecile, too, was tired of being constantly on the move. “Life in the forest was very, very difficult. I gave birth several times in the forest. There were times when I gave birth one day and the next day I put one (child) on my back and walked two to three days without anything to eat or drink to escape the Congolese army.”

Cecile felt trapped because many people had assured her she would be killed if she returned to Rwanda.

A new possibility 

Enter Emmanuel Billay. Since 2007, he has been coordinating a project to reduce violence in North Kivu, a province in Eastern Congo, by helping Rwandan refugees, including combatants like Senga, return safely to life as a civilian in Rwanda.

Billay is the North Kivu supervisor of Program for Peace and Reconciliation (PPR), a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) partner, which now has helped more than 1,900 combatants and 22,500 civilians return to Rwanda. PPR is a program of the Church of Christ in Congo, a protestant organization made up of 19 denominations.

Because PPR is not a political group, it is uniquely positioned to influence combatants who commit massacres, rape and destroy whole villages in eastern Congo to lay down arms and return home.

“We are viewed as a neutral party,” said Billay.“We don’t take orders from anyone so we are free to tell the truth.”

And to work for peace. Repatriation is one way to do that.

“When you repatriate people, especially combatants, it helps Congolese in the surrounding area feel less frightened.

If there are fewer combatants in the area, people will feel safe to go further into their fields to cultivate and in that way you bring more peace and more prosperity,” Billay said.

Hundreds of volunteers—pastors, chiefs, community leaders in North and South Kivu provinces—have been trained by PPR to give accurate information about repatriation to Rwandan refugees living near them.

When the volunteers learn of someone who is interested in returning to Rwanda, they call the local animateur—a person who is paid and trained by PPR,with support from MCC, to facilitate the repatriation. Often the animateur is a pastor because even combatants respect a pastor.

A way out

Senga remembers when Pastor Sango Lukumu, an animateur, came to his camp in late 2011 to talk to the soldiers. Lukumu was respected as an international evangelist and a local pastor so Senga let him talk to the fighters and their wives.

The former sergeant recalls the pastor saying, “Your children are malnourished. If you go back to Rwanda, there’s peace there…Your children will have something to eat.” He assured the men that the Rwandan government would allow them to return safely.

Senga liked what he heard, but he knew that any combatant who decided to leave would risk his life. Although Senga’s commanders had given PPR permission to help soldiers repatriate, Senga knew that anyone who got caught leaving was likely to be killed by members of his own group.

Nevertheless, Senga arranged to send his family home. Pastor Lukumu met Cecile and their children in secret and gave them food and clothing provided by MCC before taking them to the transfer station.

“My children were half naked,” she said from her home in Rwanda in March 2015, “but the aid arrived just at the moment when we felt the neediest. God bless these people who donated.”

Although Senga was being watched closely by FDLR leaders who suspected he wanted to leave, he managed to escape a month later. “I left at night and walked 24 hours to get to that meeting place. There were many rivers to cross. I remember being frightened that I would run into FDLR or Congolese soldiers. After I met Pastor Sango (Lukumu), we walked through the forest all day to Sango’s home and then another 31 miles to the town of Mwenga.”

Because of fighting in the area, the United Nations forces in Congo sent a helicopter to get Senga to Rwanda. He spent several months in a Rwandan government camp to prepare him to re-enter Rwandan society.

Senga and Cecile were reunited in March 2012 and now live with their children in Senga’s father’s house. Life hasn’t been easy in Rwanda either. Senga farms on bits of rented land that he can plant and cultivate. His wife works in the fields, too. They have difficulty getting food, clothes and school supplies, Senga said, but all their younger children are in primary school, and they live in a house, not under trees.

“Rwanda is a peaceful country. You can’t wish to be back in the forest, even if there are difficulties here,” he said.

Cecile now has her first grandbaby which seems to help ease the memories of difficult times in the forest. “I am elderly, but I hope my granddaughter can study and have a good life in the future.”