This is CBS I in the World. I'm John Bachelors. The Democratic Republic of Congo, once upon a time

infamously, a colony of Belgium, but now a place of much confused violence and John McDermott

for the Economist magazine guides us to the frontier of several states, Burundi, Rwanda,

Uganda and Congo. In an area where there are so many militias, we can only touch on the ones

that do the worst crimes and are repeatedly unchecked. John, a very good evening to you. Thank you for

this. Your venture into the field with a colonel who rewarded himself with a bottle of

hinocan after his men struggle to cut a new road. This part of the world arumu and are neighboring

villages. I take it from your reporting that nothing here is safe or protected or secure. Is that

correct? And what praise upon the people in these villages? Good evening to you. Good evening,

John. Just to locate myself in this report which I did recently for the Economist, I flew to

Eastern Congo in early September and I was interested in going to the region because the Congolese

government, which is based in the capital, Kinshasa, some thousand miles away from what's going on

in the east of the country, has said that since it imposed military law, martial rule, in May of 2021,

the key provinces there, which are called North Kibu and Ituri, have gotten a lot safer. So I was keen

to see whether they were telling the truth. And as part of that journey to answer that question, I went to

a town called Bumia, which is the capital of Ituri. And from there, I drove 60 kilometers to another

town called Arumu. Now, I don't know where all your listeners are, but I would imagine if they

are thinking 60 kilometers, 40 miles, that might take you somewhere between half an hour and an hour.

It took me five hours. That is quite how bad the roads are. At one point, as you were hinting at, we

fell behind a submerged lorry in the mud. And the scores of soldiers who were accompanying me got

out, dug a bypass around the lorry and eventually we managed to get on our merry way. And it was

at that point that the colonel in charge rewarded himself with a beer at the next village.

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