Kinshasa, 07 January, 2020 / 1:05 am (ACI Africa).
After his pastoral visit to the Diocese of Butembo-Beni in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where the country’s military has been fighting against dozens of local and foreign armed groups, the Archbishop of Kinshasa, Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo Besungu has expressed concerns about the desperate situation of the people there “crying out for help” and called on the government to take up its responsibility of protecting citizens.
“The context of our pastoral visit is the suffering, the atrocity, the anguish experienced by the people of eastern DR Congo who are crying out for help to all those who can hear them to come to their aid,” Cardinal Ambongo told journalists at a press conference in DRC’s capital, Kinshasa Friday, January 3.
“The Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) has several times raised its voice to draw the attention of the authorities on the crisis in the East of our country,” the Cardinal recalled and explained, “The general climate is characterized by the misery and suffering of a traumatized people. There are massacres almost daily with human beings coldly slaughtered at night.”
“The result is: Displacement of families for fear of attacks, abandoned villages, a population terrorized and traumatized, and morally weakened; acts of sabotage: houses burned down, plantations looted, and frequent kidnappings (5 priests are missing to date),” the Congolese Cardinal lamented.
DRC has faced a number of crises in recent times including an Ebola outbreak in the east and violence in various parts of the vast Central African country, particularly in the Ituri, Kasai, and Kivu regions, Global Conflict Tracker has reported.
