Congo Bishops Plead for Their Homeland

By Michael Hill

A delegation from the Bishops' Conference of the Democratic Republic of Congo came to Catholic Relief Services headquarters in Baltimore on December 5 to plead for help in bringing peace to their troubled land as CRS personnel on the ground in eastern Congo stepped up efforts to help the growing number of families displaced by fighting between rebels and government troops.

The stopover at CRS was part of a four-nation advocacy tour that took the delegation to Canada, the United States, Belgium and France to bring attention to the crisis and lobby governments for help. The day after the CRS visit, the delegation went to Washington and met with congressional leaders.

"Over the past 10 years we have suffered because of this war," said Sister Marie-Bernard Alima, executive secretary of the Congolese bishops' justice and peace commission. She compared the human toll of this conflict in the eastern Congo—over 5 million deaths—with that of World War II.

"But it is a forgotten tragedy," she lamented.

CRS has committed an initial $500,000 to the effort to help those affected by the most recent fighting, which has displaced 250,000 people since August—100,000 of those since the beginning of November. The main combatants are the Congolese army and a rebel group led by Laurent Nkunda, though several other militias are involved. All parties to the conflict have been accused of involvement in trafficking of the valuable minerals found in the region, helping to fuel the conflict.

Nkunda claims to be protecting the minority Tutsi population in the area from a renegade, mainly Rwandan, Hutu group led by remnants of those who carried out the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

A United Nations peacekeeping force of 17,000 is in the country but has been ineffective in stopping the advance of Nkunda and the undisciplined retreat of Congolese forces as well as the other bands of fighters and bandits who have terrorized the population. The United Nations has authorized the deployment of another 3,000 troops.

"First, we need an immediate cessation of all hostilities," said Bishop Fulgence Muteba of Kilwa-Kasenga. "For that, we ask for the intervention of a force that can impose peace upon the current situation."

Bishop Fridolin Ambongo of Bokungu-Ikela said this must be a new force with a strong military presence that can alter the behavior of these militias. The delegation emphasized that the current U.N. force—known by the acronym MONUC—might be able to keep the peace, but it cannot restore it.

"Even if the number of MONUC troops is doubled, it would still have the same result," Bishop Ambongo said. "MONUC is no longer a credible army for the Congolese."

The delegation is requesting that the United States help this effort, in part to restore its reputation in the area: Many Congolese see the United States as allied with Rwanda, which is widely believed to be supporting Nkunda's rebel forces.

"We are not asking for American soldiers on the ground, but for American support and logistical aid," Bishop Ambongo said. "This is the only way the displaced can return home."

The bishops' delegation is also asking the United States to increase humanitarian assistance and to use its influence to pressure all the parties involved in the conflict to implement and respect the peace accords that have already been signed.

CRS Response

The tense security situation has made delivering humanitarian assistance difficult, but CRS has beefed up its presence in the area with additional international staff on the ground in Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu. Though staff reports that Goma remains calm, sporadic fighting between the armed groups continues in other parts of North Kivu, leading to additional displacement of the civilian population.

Working with local Caritas partners, and coordinating with other relief agencies, CRS has completed registration of 5,000 displaced families who will receive kits containing items needed to survive in these harsh conditions. The kits contain plastic sheeting, blankets, water containers, soap, cooking pots and utensils.

Using a variety of funding, CRS will also deliver emergency water and education services to the displaced population.

Before this most recent outbreak of fighting, CRS, working with its Caritas partners, had stepped up its work in eastern Congo to deal with the horrific conditions following the failure of a January 2008 accord that was supposed to bring peace to this strife-torn region.

Much of the humanitarian work has focused on meeting the basic needs—food, shelter, water and sanitation—of people in the area while trying to deal on a long-term basis with the increase in sexual violence and issues associated with mining of valuable minerals in eastern Congo. Those efforts will continue as CRS and partners expand our commitment to handle this emergency situation.

Michael Hill is CRS' communications officer for sub-Saharan Africa. He is based at the agency's headquarters in Baltimore.