The soldier at the pandemic frontline

MAJOR-General Patrick Njabulo Dube knows all about pandemics. During his last tour of duty in Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), he would tell visitors that his mandate as the UN’s Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) commander had three legs: security, political and pandemic.

At first it was Ebola, but by the time he finished his extended tour as FIB commander, Ebola – the feared haemorrhagic fever – had been eradicated from the DRC, only to be replaced by Covid-19.

“Thank God, we never lost a soldier to Ebola – or Covid-19,” he said.

The battle-hardened general has lost troops in combat though. His voice softens. “It’s never easy to lose a soldier, but I know that every time I put my uniform on, I