Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Fides Service) - Conditions of civilians displaced by fighting between Mai-Mai militia and the national army in the southern province of Katanga are ever more serious.
The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Aid OCHA says that in the last week 49,000 people have left their villages bringing the number of internally displaced people to over 120,000 since military operations to disarm the Mai-Mai militia were started on 15 November 2005.
In this area at the end of last year a local Catholic priest, Fr François Djikulo and a layman were brutally murdered (see Fides 21 November 2005). The man responsible is Mai-Mai leader Gideon.
In November Bishop Fulgence Mateba of Kilwa-Kasenga diocese warned of a humanitarian crisis: “In the town of Dubie and surrounding area an invasion of a sea of people is making the critical humanitarian situation even worse. These people need food, clothing, shelter, seeds, and medical care and psychological assistance” (see Fides 25 November 2005).
International awareness of the situation is growing. A report by the US humanitarian organisation International Rescue Committee says the crisis in Congo is the world’s bloodiest in 60 years and that since the conflict started in 1998 more people have been killed in Congo than in Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo or Darfur. International Rescue Committee says the death rate in Congo is 40 times higher than other sub-Saharan countries, with an average of about 1,200 people killed every day. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 9/1/2006 righe 30 parole 324)
