This episode discusses the political unrest and the humanitarian crisis that was occurring around the time we travelled through eastern Zaire. Burundi was in a civil war as a result of their Hutu president being assassinated in 1993. The next president was shot down on a plane with the Rwandan president in April 1994. This sparked the Rwandan genocide for 100 days when up to a million Tutsi were massacred. The Rwandan Patriotic Front of mainly Tutsi, retaliated to stop the genocide. The Hutu, and some Tutsi, fled into neighbouring countries. Around two million Hutu fled into Zaire in a matter of days. This was only a few months after we had passed through the area and we noted the lack of food in the area. There was stories of refugees roaming the hillsides and eating tree roots. I was concerned about the survival of the mountain gorillas when food was a huge issue. The refugees arriving in Goma ended up with four large refugee camps of around 800,000 people in each. However, Hutu were also controlling the camps so many humanitarian organisations pulled out. Cholera, typhoid and other outbreaks were common.   Having been through this area and experienced the hardships people were having in trying to survive in a densely populated area, it was hard to imagine the increased pressure when the two million refugees hit that area. The humanitarian disaster started from ethnic intolerance between two tribal clans, the Hutu and the Tutsi. This is common in Africa and many other places around the globe, where people are afraid of differences and show hostility. We need to stop intolerance for other races, colour, religion, and other differences. One of the best steps is educating our children to be tolerant of differences and stopping the hostility. We can all do our part.    --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/justine-murray0/message