Video game "The Red" awakens patriotic conscience in DRC

As the conflict in eastern DRC rages on between government forces and the M23 rebels supported by Rwanda, many young people are turning to video games.

For the past two months, Samuel Vijey, a young computer engineer, has been designing THE RED, a video game in which the main player is a commando from the DRC's armed forces.

"The main player is a commando of the DRC Armed Forces who is at home following the radio when he hears the population lamenting new massacres, so he receives a blow, he receives instructions from his hierarchy asking him to stop an advance of the rebels who are already on their way", said Samuel Vijey, designer of the video game THE RED.

The designer wants to awaken the patriotic conscience of his Congolese peers at a time when the country is under attack from Rwanda. 

Josué Amani has only found out about this game a week ago. He says it provides civic education and patriotic awareness as well as good entertainment.

"By playing THE RED, I feel inside the skin of this main actor who is a commando of our army, so I feel this desire to defend my country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, rising in my mind", said Josué Amani, young fan of video games. 

Accompanying his friend who came to play, Gaylor Pataule fell under the spell of THE RED which, according to him, accurately retraces the precarious security situation in the east of his country, his greatest wish is to master the game in a short time.

"Seeing the way this game plays, I noticed that it accurately interprets the war in our region, which amazes me. I also want to master THE RED to feel the same way they feel when they play it", added Gaylor Pataule, a youth from Goma.

The eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been the scene of clashes for more than two decades between foreign and national armed groups and the regular army, causing hundreds of thousands of internally and externally displaced people.