Kanku's Story | Losing a parent to conflict in Kasai, DRC

Kanku is 14 years old and like many of her classmates, recently had to flee her home when the military arrived in her village this spring. She lives in Kazumba Nord in Kasai Central, about an hour and a half from the regional capital of Kananga.

A conflict between the heir to a traditional chiefdom to the East and the government quickly spiralled into widespread violence in August 2016, and by April this year the conflict had arrived in Kanku’s village. Kanku and her family fled, along with all of their neighbours, and spent two months in hiding in the bush.

“It’s just my mum left; Papa died in the war,” Kanku told me. “He was with us in the forest, and he came back to check on the goats. He was beaten by an armed man. We’d been hiding for two days.” 

With little to eat from their hiding place, it was frequently necessary to sneak out in search of supplies.

“It was bad in the forest.” Kanku remembered. “We ate by coming and fetching food from the house, or selling the animals and buying food. In the forest we made a shelter out of palm fronds. Only one person died, but many people were sick. It wasn’t comfortable. It was difficult.”

 Kanku, her mum, and six siblings returned home in June, but the past few months have been a struggle. Without her father, and having sold many of their animals and supplies, it’s a challenge to start again. With the last school year interrupted and families struggling to make ends meet, there are fears that many children in the Kasais could end up permanently out of school.

In Kanku’s school district, they’ve decided to waive the requirements for school uniforms to make it easier for families to afford the school fees, and World Vision has been working with UNICEF and other local NGOs on a back to school campaign to get children out of the bush and back at their desks. 

Kanku’s family is lucky. Just four of the children are still at school age, and her father’s younger brother is trying to make sure they get a chance to finish their education. Two of Kanku’s older siblings are in secondary school, and Kanku and her little brother are at the local primary school. 

“My uncle is paying for my studies now.” Kanku says solemnly. “He’s paying support to my mother so we can still go to school.”

“When Papa was here, life was good. Now that he’s dead, we’re struggling. We don’t eat well. Mum works in the fields to support the family, but we eat just once a day.”

World Vision declared a Category III National Emergency in the Kasais in June 2017, and has been targeting 146,000 beneficiaries in the Grand Kasai region, as well as refugees who’ve fled to Angola. Initial interventions focus on food and child protection, with a fundraising goal of 2million USD. 

Working with World Food Programme we have distributed foodstuffs to more than 28,000 food insecure people in Kasai Central – these were the first food distributions in the region since the crisis began. From 12 October, we will start a new wave of food distributions with WFP to provide a further 75,000 individuals with supplies through November.  In the realm of child protection and education, WV is opening six Child Friendly Spaces, conducting back to school distributions of bags and supplies, and planning education interventions which will reach over 30,000 children affected by the conflict.