Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Fides Service)- Superiors of Religious Communities in the Katanga region in the south of DR Congo say the situation is now desperate. “We see an alarming humanitarian situation which has gone on for years without any effective solution despite repeated positions taken by both civil and church authorities” says a statement of the Religious Superiors.
“The events which devastate northern Katanga are known to all since the war of liberation led by Laurent Desiré Kabila against the forces of Mobutu” in 1996-97, the statement affirms. “In face since then we have witnessed a war led by militia who spread death, desolation and insecurity all over the area. This state of affairs provokes a movement of countless human masses fleeing repeated and unjustified wars. According to Anne Egerton, in charge of the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs, the latest estimates of displaced persons amount to 120,000 people. Men women, old people and children who ask only for peace, spend days and nights in the forest, exposed to all sorts of bad weather”
Because of disease and malnutrition the situation of these people gets worse day by day.
“A good part of northern Katanga escapes government control and this has made it a lawless territory where it will be impossible to organise the next elections” says the statement which recalls besides armed groups, also regular army soldiers, “not always sufficiently paid and equipped for their duty, not only are they unable to guarantee security, they themselves are responsible for grave violence against the civilian population”.
The statement recognises efforts made by humanitarian organisations to alleviate the suffering of the people of Katanga: “The agencies which operate in our territory often in extremely difficult conditions have done great work. However we deplore the fact that promised aid does not always reach the people for whom it is intended intact and what is announced by the media at times does not correspond to reality in the territory”.
The Religious call for the militia groups to be disarmed and their leaders pursued by justice, better pay for regular soldiers and an investigation of domestic and international responsibility for violence in the region.
The voice of religious men and women joins many others which have denounced the grave situation in Katanga. For example in a statement released last November the Catholic Bishops of Katanga denounced “abominable violence committed against civilians. Survivors and displaced persons speak of killings, torching of homes, abduction of persons, confiscation of possessions, theft, rape and even cases of cannibalism” (see Fides 17 November 2005). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 17/2/2006 righe 41 parole 481)
