Elen (6) washes her hands at a water tank provided by Trócaire, DR Congo. Photo: Garry Walsh/Trócaire As the situation gets worse in the DR Congo, the Director of Communication at Caritas Butembo-Beni has decried the desperation that has enveloped the people of eastern Congo following an upsurge in violence between the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and the Congolese Armed Forces.
M23 took control of the mining town of Nyabibwe last week, located some 60 miles from the capital of South Kivu, Bukavu.
Elie Mbulegheti, Director of Communication at Caritas Butembo-Beni, told Crux that the fighting has created a situation where people aren’t even free to flee.
He said the war has resulted in thousands of orphaned children who now live in orphanages within the diocese, and “they struggle daily to access education, food, and proper living conditions. Their caregivers often rely on neighbourhoods and city residents to help feed and care for them.”
In a statement, members of the Episcopal Conference of the Congo, CENCO expressed their spiritual closeness with the people of eastern Congo so battered by conflict.
They voiced “great sadness and much concern” at the violence in a statement signed by Archbishop Fulgence Muteba Mugalu of Lubumbashi, the president of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO).
“The intensification of fighting between the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) and the AFC/M23 rebels, along with their respective allies, has caused enormous loss of human life,” the bishops said.
“We wish to express our fraternal closeness and solidarity with Bishop Willy Ngumbi of Goma Diocese, and Archbishop François Xavier Maroy, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bukavu, as well as with the entire People of God living in these afflicted regions,” the Church leaders said.