Beni-Butembo, 20 January, 2021 / 9:43 pm (ACI Africa).
Following reported renewed killings in villages in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Catholic Bishop of the country’s Butembo-Beni Diocese has appealed to government authorities to act in order to bring an end to people’s suffering.
In a recorded appeal sent to Catholic charity organization, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop Melchisédech Sikuli Paluku decries the protracted attacks, saying that the people of God feel abandoned in a country where those in authority seem “indifferent.”
Recounting one of the attacks near his jurisdiction in the Monday, January 18 video clip, the Bishop says, “Last weekend, in a parish 20 kilometers from Butembo, about 20 people were killed. They were massacred. It is the umpteenth massacre in the Diocese in general silence.”
He adds, “The most shameful, in the words of the Holy Father, is the indifference of the competent authorities. We feel abandoned, but we still hope that somewhere in the world, in the name of the humanity we share, there are people who will commit themselves to change this situation.”
Likening the worrying situation in the Central Africa country to Calvary, Bishop Paluku goes on to apportion blame on the local media for their silence as people continue to suffer.