BBC Africa editor Fergal Keane writes about the anger and anguish of villagers caught up in the latest spiral of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A dark line ran across the small, beautiful face. On either side were stitch marks that ran up under the white bandage covering the top of her head. The wound was deep. The scar would be with Rose all of her days.
I was sitting a few feet away, a stranger, someone from another world. But she was without curiosity. It was as if I did not exist at all. As her father said, she was “far away. It's as if she hears and sees nothing.”
Like many of the small children of Maze village in north-eastern Ituri province, Rose Mapenzi, aged four, was strapped to her mother's back when the killers struck.
The women were preparing the evening meal when they heard the cries of the attackers. Those carrying children, as well as the elderly, were an easy target. As they stumbled in panic, the machetes hacked and slashed.
Rose's father, Jeremy, recalled the moment the…
