Imprisoned Congolese Goats… What Will They Think of Next?!1?
The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed well over 5 million people.
Sporadic, ad hoc reporting that emphasizes an ‘ancient ethnic conflict’ meme is just one of the problems with the media’s reaction to crises in African countries, this one in particular.
Such reporting, however, looks downright charming compared with this anonymously authored gem from the BBC today about imprisoned Congolese goats:
The beasts were due to appear in court, charged with being sold illegally by the roadside.
The minister said many police had serious gaps in their knowledge and they would be sent for retraining.
This would be a good story to file under the ‘inescapable African incompetence’ category of reporting, were it not for this line at the end:
BBC Africa analyst Mary Harper says that given the grim state of prisons in Congo, the goats will doubtless be relieved about being spared a trial.
Zing! It’s… hilarious?… how awful the conditions are for thousands of imprisoned Congolese.
This isn’t quite up there with British reporting in the early days of the Rwandan genocide that detailed the escape of a ‘war hero’ poodle, but it’s close.
[By the way, I'm aware that the link above is also from the BBC; it's a bit better (and authored) though it still contains this awesome line: "And because DR Congo's population is large...it's a worse humanitarian crisis even than that caused by other African wars." Even worse than other crazy African wars? Whoa.]
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