Cardinal Ambongo expresses worry over increasing violence in eastern DRC

By Vatican News

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, archbishop of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has sounded the alarm over the rise in violence affecting the capital of North Kivu, in the east of the DRC, where fighters of M23 took up arms and advanced on several towns.

Speaking to Fides News, the missionary news agency of the Catholic Church, the Cardinal said that “the M23 continues to conquer the territory while the Congolese army is in complete chaos” and that “what is the most feared is the risk of general insecurity, particularly in Goma and in general.” throughout the east of the country. »

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is visiting eastern DRC from April 16 to 18, a region where violence has forced nearly two million people to flee their homes since the end of 2021.

Cardinal Ambongo affirms that “the bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Bukavu have presented a very clear analysis of the reality in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo”, as highlighted in a pastoral letter published in mid-April. He is concerned “about the dangerous situation of the Church itself in this area” and “this is why the bishops of the province of Bukavu, like all of us at the national level of the Congolese Episcopal Conference, have taken the decision to support the population even in this difficult period.”

He adds that pastoral care towards a suffering people calls us to look “how we can show a little of God's love and mercy to this suffering people”, concluding “this is what the Church is trying to do, but it's not always easy. “