'A journalist at the wrong place at the right time.' This is how I described my professional powerlessness when I found myself stuck in Kinshasa a month ago. I couldn't travel on to Eastern Congo because of the war, and I had to decide what to do next. Should I still go to Goma? Would it be wise to get caught up in a war just because I’m writing a book on urbanisation in Africa? On the international section of NRC Handelsblad I explain my dilemma and why I went to Bukavu instead. A decision I didn't regret for a minute.

When the 1996 war started, he and his wife were hidden in the cement oven for ten days. 'For once the oven served a purpose', says Anicet Ntabaza. The factory hasn't been functioning for years, the oven hasn't worked since Congo's independence. But beginning next year the director of Inter'lacs Katana hopes to be able to take the factory into action. To find heavy industry in the middle of the forest, on an idyllic spot on Lake Kivu, is almost surreal. The factory, stemming from colonial times, is ready to start again. He only hopes that there will not be another war: 'One round of plunderings and we'll have to start all over again.'