FORGOTTEN COMMUNITIES

Peace, Climate and Resistance in the Democratic Republic of Congo

By Jackson Kisangani, Youth Peace and Climate Justice Activist from Goma, DRC

When war stifles the climate... and vice versa.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, the beating heart of Africa, is also one of its green lungs. Its dense forests, majestic lakes, fertile lands... everything should make this country a bastion of life. Yet, it is often the smell of gunpowder, the mud of displaced persons camps, and the silence of the forgotten that dominate.

In the east, in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, war and climate are intertwined in a vicious cycle.

• Forests are being cut down to produce charcoal.

• Hills collapse on entire villages.

• Rivers are overflowing. Fields are drying up.

• Millions of people are displaced by violence... or by rain.

The climate isn't changing "somewhere." It's changing here in the DRC, abruptly, visibly; but no one is looking.

YOUTH STAND UP, DESPITE EVERYTHING

And yet, amidst this chaos, a silent resistance is organizing. It is young, it is local. And it is often invisible.

In Goma, Bunia, Bukavu or Beni, young people are rising up, not in large conferences, but in the alleys, the markets, the camps. They plant trees along rivers, make ecological briquettes to replace makala, go from door to door, explaining what climate change is... in Swahili, on foot, without microphones, without cameras.

A young man plants a tree in a poor neighborhood of Goma, a modest gesture, but immense hope.

They campaign in the shadows, often in danger. But they persist. Because they know that peace will not be born in weapons or air-conditioned offices. It will grow with the trees, it will flow with the rivers.

PEACE AND CLIMATE: ONE FIGHT

We cannot talk about climate justice without talking about peace. And we will never build lasting peace without social justice, without ecological justice. "We are the ones you forget. But we are also the ones who stand firm." These young people are not waiting for charity.

They demand solidarity, inclusion, recognition. Because they innovate, resist and rebuild with almost nothing.

WHAT TO DO NOW:

• Train young activists in nonviolent mobilization, community communication and environmental justice.

• Create an Emergency Climate Fund for conflict zones, managed by young people themselves, in partnership with local NGOs, flexible, fast, without bureaucracy

• Give a platform to the invisible: integrate young people from Goma, Bunia, Beni into the COP, pan-African forums, national delegations.

• Support local resilience projects: reforestation, sanitation, regenerative agriculture recycling, community gardens.

•  And above all: listen to those on the front line

Climate justice begins where no one is looking. Where the spotlight doesn't shine. In forgotten areas. In Kisumu, Kinshasa, Nairobi, Paris, Geneva, Baku, Belém, Kampala, Dar Es Salaam, or New York, the same truth must resonate: those who suffer most from the climate must no longer be absent from decision-making.

Because saving the climate also means rejecting violence.

Because peace nourishes Africa.

Because it gives the world a chance to survive.

Jackson Kisangani

jacksonkisangani@gmail.com

Democratic Republic of Congo