Local voices: Congolese communities and the Kivu conflict

International Alert, Local Voices and Search for Common Ground are proud to announce the launch of their joint project, ‘Local Voices: Congolese communities and the Kivu conflict’.

Through a series of stories using personal testimonies and photographs, the project strives to give a voice to local people, from warlords and youth to displaced women and local authorities. The project focuses on sensitive issues such as armed groups, the weakness of state authorities, or tensions between ethnic communities, and places the reader in the daily lives of the communities most affected by armed conflict.

Local Voices aims to inform the general public as well as policy makers about the dynamics and triggers of violence in eastern Congo and put local populations at the centre of concerns.

For Alexis Bouvy, project director and co-founder of Local Voices, the project is about “giving a voice to populations who have no opportunities to share their experiences with armed conflicts, to express their concerns, their difficulties, their frustrations and their fears.”

Maria Lange, DRC country manager at International Alert says: “The exclusion of Congolese people from decision-making has been one of the obstacles to peace in DRC. Giving them a voice is an important step when it comes to building peace.”

The photostories were published weekly from 5 December 2013 to 28 January 2014.