AFRICA/DR CONGO - Appeal of an Assumptionist father: "President, intervene to stop the massacres in North Kivu"

Friday, 13 May 2016 missionaries   massacres  

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - "President, I ask you to take an interest in what is happening in Beni, in Kivu. Could you take into consideration a serious inquiry for a proper justice?". Is the appeal in a letter to the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, by Fr. Gaston Mumbere, who signs himself "Member of the Congregation of the Augustinians of the Assumption". Jean-Pierre Ndulani, Edmond Bamtupe and Anselme Wsukundi, abducted October 19, 2012, and Fr. Vincent Machozi, killed on 20 March (see Fides 22/03/2016) belonged to the same Congregation.
In the letter, the text of which was sent to Agenzia Fides, Fr. Mumbere remembers the massacres perpetrated by the different armed groups in the territory of Beni, in North Kivu, eastern DRC (see Fides 29/02/2016). The religious describes appalling crimes committed against the civilian population, such as children with their throats cut or massacred with a hammer.
Citing the figure of 8 million deaths, caused over 20 years of civil war and instability in the region, Fr. Mumbere polemically emphasizes that "at this rate, you could become the President of the dead, cemeteries and mass graves".
"There are numerous survivors. Each of them will write to you. (...). If you do not act logically you risk being accused of complicity" concludes the Assumptionist father. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 13/05/2016)


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