AFRICA/DR CONGO - Beni: a "dead city" for three days to ask for the release of the two abducted priests

Friday, 21 July 2017 kidnappings   priests  

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – A "dead city" for three days to demand the immediate release of the two priests kidnapped on Sunday, July 16. Yesterday, July 20, the civil society of Beni in the North Kivu province, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, decreed it. The two priests Don Pierre Akilimali and Don Charles Kipasa were kidnapped by strangers in the Notre-Dame des Anges parish of Bunyuka, in the territory of Bashu in Beni-Butembo diocese on the night between Sunday 16 July and Monday 17 (see Fides 18/7/2017).
The appeal to popular mobilization was welcomed. Since yesterday morning, economic activities in Vuhovi, Kyondo, Bunyuka, Butungera and Bulambo have been blocked. "We demand the immediate and unconditional release of our two priests from the parish of Bunyuka", said Moïse Paluku, vice president of civil society in Beni. "But we also want to denounce the insecurity in the Bashu area, especially the reappearance of night incursions, marked by aggression, murder, kidnapping, theft and sexual violence".
According to Okapi Radio, who contacted the diocese of Butembo-Beni, there is no news of the fate of the two priests. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 21/7/2017)


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