Train of hope throws a commercial lifeline to millions of people in war-torn Congo

Rebuilt line transforms life in once isolated rural towns
When labourers started clearing jungle foliage from the disused rail track, the people of Samba laughed. A train? In this isolated, war-torn bit of Congo? It seemed absurd.

"They said it was a joke," said Louis Ngongo Bila, one of the labourers. "I have to admit I didn't have faith either, it seemed a folly."

After a horrific war which left more than 3 million dead, the economy in ruins and rural towns marooned in the bush, their transport and phone links cut, optimism does not come readily to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Years of looting and destruction bled almost everything of value from Samba, down to doorknobs and the station manager's pencil. Rehabilitating the line seemed fanciful.

Thanks to the government, the charity Concern and other relief agencies, the train is back. Since June it has chugged through Samba twice a month, a blast of colour and noise which draws hordes of children, traders and passengers to the station.

Dating from the 1920s and 1930s, the box cars clank, rattle and toil along the reopened 870-mile track, sometimes wheezing to unscheduled stops, but the sight stirs hope of a brighter future.

Once a busy market stop on the line between Lubumbashi and Kindu, two provincial capitals, Samba went back in time when the war destroyed the railway six years ago.

As jungle vines colonised the track and trees sprouted between sleepers, the town crumbled. People fled into the bush, shops and schools closed, fields were abandoned.

Peace deals have restored a modicum of security to the province but you can see the war's legacy in the hollow cheeks, distended bellies and yellowing hair of malnourished children.

At therapeutic feeding centres like the one in nearby Kasongo some are too weak to sit up. Kabala Machozi, 10, his ribs protruding, used every ounce of energy raising a yellow plastic cup to his lips.

Concern's emergency response should save Kabala but it took more than nutrition and medical care to revive a community drained of resources and confidence. What Samba needed was economic opportunity.

So Concern helped the National Congolese Railway Authority to rehabilitate the track and stations, a surprisingly swift operation completed in under a year by several thousand labourers.

Trumpeted by a brass band as it left Lubumbashi, the inaugural "peace train" in June was met along the line by cheering crowds.

No longer reliant solely on bicycles, pirogues and foot to trade, 15 million people have been given a commercial lifeline.

"It was like a miracle. People saw this as the end of the war," said Benjamin Abeli, Samba's station manager. His years as a refugee in the forest, scavenging wild berries, were over, he felt.

Despite the tropical heat he wore a jacket and tie and his black shoes gleamed. By next year he hopes to have a typewriter, calculator and computer for the office.

In just a few months the town's economy has been transformed. From receiving just 800 Congolese francs for a sack of maize at the local market farmers now make 3,000 by sending their produce to Kindu and Lubumbashi.

For the first time in years traders like Kambi Hassan can shift their stocks of palm oil. He said: "I can now afford to send all my children to school and have started building a hotel," a knock-on benefit which has given work to 19 previously unemployed labourers.

There are downsides to the growth. Those few locals who do not grow maize have endured an almost fourfold rise in the staple's price. Prostitution and HIV/Aids may sprout in the shadows during the train's stopovers. Samba's commercial revival could make it a target should the war resume.

So far, though, the railway has been overwhelmingly good news. Since June school enrolment has doubled so that classes are now jammed, back to their pre-war level.

The headmaster, Joseph Shulungu, did not mind that his entrepreneurial pupils skipped class to trade cigarettes and sweets when the train came to town. "I'm a happy headmaster, I can't complain."

Prices for goods which Samba must buy in, such as salt, soap, medicine and cotton, have almost halved, giving the impoverished extra leeway in feeding their families.

At Concern's supplementary feeding centre in Samba the supervisor, Andre Ngereza, marvelled at the empty benches where mothers and infants used to queue. "Thanks to the train we have just 78 children on our books. Otherwise it would have been 200."

The town's recently arrived doctor, Norbert Lofole, the first since colonial times, said that at current rates of improvement malnutrition could be eradicated within two years. "You know, it's nice not being an enclave."

Tomorrow in G2, John Vidal reports on Concern's work in East Timor.

Vital statistics

· The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world
· A third of children are underweight at birth and almost two-fifths of under-fives are stunted through malnutrition
· Infant mortality is 94.69 deaths per 1,000 live births (in Britain, 5.22 per 1,000)
· Life expectancy is 49.14 years (Britain 78.27 years)
· In 2005, Concern's livelihood, food security and nutrition programmes in Congo will reach more than 250,000 people

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