Congolese Community in Rome Organizes March to St. Peter’s Square for Peace in DRC

He said the message the Pope delivered on the first day of his visit to DRC “calls on the entire human community to open its eyes to the unprecedented tragedy raging in the east of the DRC, with the complicit silence of the international community.”

The Chaplain said DRC is a victim of the “ambitions and appetites” of foreign countries that continue to illegally exploit its wealth, through multinationals. 

The situation, he said, makes the DRC “a martyred country before and after colonization, and plunges it into undeserved poverty and misery”.

Fr. Tshimanga said, “The activism of armed groups is sowing terror and desolation, causing massacres and displacing people both internally and externally.”

“The plight of these populations, more than alarming...does not seem to preoccupy international human rights institutions, nor move the solidarity of nations, nor challenge the conscience of the human community,” he said.

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Fr. Tshimanga continued, “Everything shows that we are victims of an international conspiracy that does not speak its name.”

“The Congolese people are determined to defend themselves and the integrity of their territory. They are also determined to make their voices heard and stop this hemorrhage which is decimating our populations, pitting them against each other and spreading a culture of hatred with uncontrollable consequences,” he added.

Violence in Eastern DRC has created a severe humanitarian crisis with more than 5.5 million people displaced from their homes, reportedly the third-highest number of internally displaced people in the world.

A February 14 United Nations report indicates that civilians in Eastern DRC “are bearing the brunt of localized violence, amid a sharp uptick in fighting between Government forces and the M23 armed group.”

More than 120 armed groups are fighting for control of the Eastern DRC, a region rich with natural resources.

On February 20 Catholic Bishops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) appealed to the people of God in the Central African nation to show their solidarity with the inhabitants of the Eastern part of the country through intensified prayers. 

In response, the Archbishop of DRC’s Kinshasa Archdiocese condemned countries that neighbor the DRC for working in cahoots with multinationals to rob the country of its natural resources.

Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.