Kibwe Mwepwe, DRC "Some of the Mayi-Mayi fighters I was with were killed"

"My three sons and I surrendered to the army in January. We are the Mayi-Mayi of northern Katanga and we had been fighting the army at the village of Katendeji. We were with various Mayi-Mayi groups that had gone to ambush the army at the hospital there but it didn't work out the way we had hoped.

My three boys and I got out alive but some of the Mayi-Mayi fighters I was with were killed. It was very bad and we couldn't fight any more so we decided to come here and surrender. We walked 110 km west of here to get here to the army's company headquarters in Dubie. It took us five days. We each came with AK-47s, which we handed in as we arrived.

"I was not injured in this battle but I was shot in the wrist during the war with Rwanda [in 1998] when we were supporting the government. That was when I started as a Mayi-Mayi; to help President Laurent Kabila and the Congolese army defend our territory. To become a Mayi-Mayi you must first wash in special water; it is part of our Luba culture. The water is sprinkled on us to baptise us and protect us so that bullets cannot penetrate our bodies. As you can see it didn't work on me [he shows his deformed wrist], and now some of my comrades are dead."

"I became a Mayi-Mayi again in 2003 against the government when I was recruited into Kapusu's group. Kapusu is a sub-commander of the notorious Mayi-Mayi called Gedeon.

"Everyone is terrified of Gedeon. You can't even know what he looks like. We have been under him for more than two years and we never saw him, and all the people in all the Mayi-Mayi groups I know have never seen him. I know it sounds strange to be fighting for a man you have never seen but how many soldiers here in Dubie have seen President Joseph Kabila who is their commander and chief?"