Dongo, 25 May 2011 - In the villages of Munzaya and Enyele, with a population totaling 4,000 people, you hear young men marching and singing. A year ago that sound would have been different. Singing would have been followed by an attack by either the Lobaba or Boba populations in Dongo Sector (about 80 km south of Dongo city, in South Ubangi District, Equator province, DRC).

However, the situation is different today, as these men no longer march to a war beat. Rather, they call out to villagers to play football in uniforms provided by the United Nations family in the DRC and an International NGO, Search for Common Ground, part of one of many components provided to these communities to reach peaceful co-existence.

Over the past two years, these communities witnessed a brutal conflict rooted in natural resources, in particular access to nine fishing ponds, which are a major source of livelihood. Cut off from access to outside resources in remote parts of Equateur province, their choice of alternative livelihoods was limited.

In Munzaya, according to Polycarpe Gunie Mwinyongo, Civil Society President from Dongo, it is estimated that over 1000 people died in the five communities, of whom nine were his family members including his elder brother.

MONUSCO initiated a conflict resolution programme, following a joint assessment mission in January 2010, which confirmed that the conflict between the two communities had spread to four other communities (Dongo, Gemena, Bokonzi, and Bozene) leading to the displacement of approximately 130,000 people to both Congo Brazzaville and the Central African Republic (CAR). The mission also facilitated the deployment of humanitarian actors into an area previously inaccessible because of lack of roads.

Since June 2010, MONUSCO has provided logistical, military and financial support totaling $77,000 USD for five conflict resolution workshops and assisted the building of a community radio station in Dongo. With support from UN agencies and MONUSCO, local journalists will be trained to broadcast messages about preventing future conflicts to communities within a 250 kilometer radius.

As Ploycarpe Guine Mwinyongo put it, "without the work of MONUSCO and Search For Common Ground, I would not be standing here in front of you, since we would not be alive today."

MONUSCO and UN agencies will continue supporting this process through the UN Peace Consolidation Programme (PCP) by strengthening state authority and economic development opportunities in order to tackle problems such as high unemployment.

Marjorie Henderson/ MONUSCO