Trouble continues to flare in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the robbery of a Catholic bishop, and reports that more than 70 bodies were discovered inside a Protestant church in the country.
The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need said that local sources had confirmed the bodies were found Feb. 15 inside a church in the village of Maiba, in North Kivu Province, which borders Rwanda and Uganda.
“Many of them had been bound and some beheaded,” the source said. “Among the victims were women, children, and the elderly.”
Members of an Islamist group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), are believed to be responsible for the killings.
Meanwhile, Bishop Sébastien Joseph Muyengo Mulombe of Uvira and two priests were reportedly robbed Feb. 20 by soldiers wearing uniforms of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC), the national military force.
Soldiers also reportedly vandalized the offices of the Diocese of Uvira, in South Kivu Province, which borders Burundi and Tanzania.
“Together with Bishop Sébastien Joseph Muyengo Mulombe of Uvira, we, Fathers Ricardo Mukuninwa and Bernard Kalolero, narrowly escaped death this morning at 8:30 a.m. at the episcopal residence in Uvira,” said a Feb. 20 statement signed by Fr. Mukuninwa.
"Three FARDC soldiers in uniform, speaking Tshiluba, entered the diocese headquarters and first threatened the security guard, Mr. Mwamba, and the cook, Mr. Jean.”
“I went out to ask the soldiers about the situation, but they pointed their guns at all of us and threw us to the ground along with the bishop. They robbed us, taking money, phones, and other belongings. They then locked us in our rooms and threatened to kill us at the slightest gesture so that they could search the whole house.”
Fr. Mukuninwa said that after the soldiers left, Missionary Sisters of Jesus Emmanuel visited the house and learned what had happened.
Tshiluba is a language spoken in Kasai Occidental and Kasai Oriental, provinces in the center-west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This suggests the robbery was carried out by soldiers of the regular army from these provinces.
If so, it would not be the first such incident. Looting by soldiers has been reported elsewhere in Uvira, as well as in Congolese cities previously captured by pro-Rwandan and pro-Ugandan guerrilla groups.
But the soldiers’ identity cannot be determined with certainty. The Fides news agency quoted a local source saying that Rwandan soldiers and members of the M23 rebel group were often disguised as Congolese soldiers, stressing that wearing a uniform does not always correspond to membership in the regular army.
The incidents in Maiba and Uvira occurred amid a major offensive by the Rwanda-backed M23 forces and other members of the Congo River Alliance, the AFC, led by Corneil Naanga, previously head of the DRC’s Independent National Electoral Commission.
The groups, which are fighting for control of the eastern DRC’s mineral-rich land, captured Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province, at the end of January. They seized Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu Province, Feb. 16.
DRC communications minister Patrick Muyaya Katembwe told journalists that “more than 5,000 bodies have been buried in Goma” following the offensive. He added that “at the rate things were going, the number of dead in Goma will exceed 8,000.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Feb. 18 that there were “confirmed cases of summary executions of children by the M23 after its entry into the city of Bukavu.”
A spokeswoman said M23 soldiers killed three boys after they refused to hand over weapons they had found.
“We call on Rwanda and the M23 to ensure that human rights and international humanitarian law are respected,” she said.
The rebels’ next target is believed to be Uvira, a gateway for trade between Central and East Africa. According to reports, Burundian troops sent by the country’s President Évariste Ndayishimiye to support the Congolese national army have gradually retreated. Fearing an imminent assault, many civilians have fled Uvira, where acts of looting and violence have been reported amid clashes between local Wazalendo militias and fleeing national army soldiers.
Meanwhile, Church leaders have met in recent weeks with the Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi, rebel leaders in Goma, the Rwandan President Paul Kagame, and Congolese opposition leaders in Brussels, Belgium.
At the same time, representatives of the Catholic National Episcopal Conference of Congo and the Church of Christ in Congo — a union of Protestant groups — are traveling extensively in pursuit of peace in the region.
Amid the rebel advance, the groups formally launched their joint “Social Pact for Peace and Harmonious Co-existence in the DRC and Great Lakes Region” Feb. 20, in the precinct of a church in Lubumbashi, Haut-Katanga Province. The launch featured the release of doves as a sign of hope for peace.
But the churchmen’s peace plan faces serious obstacles, including a lack of support from the DRC’s ruling party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, UDPS, which has argued that “the Church has no vocation to take political initiatives.”
Militant UDPS supporters recently circulated appeals on social networks to attack Catholic and Protestant churches, accusing the CENCO-ECC delegation of meeting rebels and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame without the state’s mandate.
Speaking at his official residence Feb. 22, President Tshisekedi reportedly questioned the validity of the CENCO-ECC peace project.
"Regarding the initiative of the Catholic and Protestant churches, President Tshisekedi says he is waiting for the conclusions of their tour even if he admits that he does not understand the place of their project in relation to the Nairobi and Luanda processes,” said an official statement, referring to other peace initiatives.
But the bishops’ conference general secretary, Msgr. Donatien Nshole, said Tshisekedi was given advance notice of the church leaders’ meeting with rebels.
“He did not forbid us because he understood that it is a pastoral approach that excludes no one,” Nshole commented.
Speaking at the end of a Feb. 9 Mass, Kinshasa’s Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo promised to spare no effort in helping to bring peace to eastern DRC.
“We will go and talk to everyone. Even if they live on the moon,” he said.
In light of the threats to churches, the chancellery of the Kinshasa archdiocese issued a Feb. 16 statement encouraging Catholics to exercise vigilance while attending Mass.
“Do not be afraid, hold on,” said the statement, which recalled that freedom of worship is an inalienable right guaranteed by the Congolese constitution.
Since the fall of Goma and Bukavu, there have been isolated attacks against Swahili speakers from the east of the country in Kinshasa, the DRC’s capital. The attacks are sometimes justified by accusations that the victims were accomplices of the rebels or even Rwanda, where a small minority speaks Swahili.
In response, the bishops’ conference — known as CENCO — issued a Feb. 22 communiqué denouncing the targeting of Swahili speakers in Kinshasa and other areas. They pointed out that Swahili is one of the DRC’s four national languages, alongside Kikongo, Lingala and Tshiluba.
“The archbishops and bishops, members of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo denounce and severely condemn the hunt for Swahili-speakers in the city-province of Kinshasa and certain other areas of our country,” the statement said.
The bishops expressed outrage that some pastors of revival churches, and other “gurus,” have made speeches inciting discrimination, hatred, and violence against other Congolese men and women because of their origin or language.
The rebel coalition’s ultimate goal is to continue the offensive until it reaches Kinshasa, where it hopes to oust President Tshisekedi, who it accuses of being “dictatorial, corrupt, pleasure-seeking and power-hungry.”
CENCO general secretary Msgr. Nshole said that church leaders were “satisfied” with their talks with M23 representatives.
He said: “The M23 made it clear that it is not here for the balkanization of the country, nor to plunder its natural resources. This position is important for the future of the dialogue.”
Despite the worsening security situation, Tshisekedi insisted the national army was mounting a “vigorous response” to the offensive.
“We are certainly achieving diplomatic victories, but we must remain vigilant and active,” he said. “The enemy is not going to give up and wants to continue plundering our resources.”
“The fight will be tough, but we are not going to give up. We must unseat this system.”
Following rapid rebel gains, there are fears the conflict could spread beyond Congolese borders. South Africa has maintained a presence of more than a thousand troops in the DRC, as part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC).
In a Feb. 23 op-ed in the South African Sunday Times newspaper, former Congolese President Joseph Kabila cautioned against South African military entanglement in the DRC and called for the root causes of the conflict to be addressed.
“The world is watching closely to see whether South Africa — known for its humanitarianism and values — will continue to send troops to the DRC to support a tyrannical regime and combat the aspirations of the Congolese people,” he wrote.
African media reported that more than 200 SADC soldiers based in Goma returned to their home countries Feb. 24.
In a Feb. 15 pastoral message to Catholics in his Uvira diocese, Bishop Sébastien Joseph Muyengo Mulombe issued an “urgent appeal to those involved in this armed conflict to respect people’s lives and property.”
“In Uvira, for more than a week now, even though the war itself has not yet begun, we have been living through a traumatic situation, with the crackling of bullets everywhere, night and day,” he wrote, deploring widespread looting.
He called on priests to lead prayers to God, “for the conversion of human hearts, especially those of our political decision-makers.”
“I would ask everyone not to panic too much,” he concluded. “In this Holy and Jubilee Year, under the sign of hope, let us leave ourselves in God’s hands.”
