“Their responsibility before history and before God will be engaged, if nothing is done to secure people and their property,” they say in their collective statement obtained by ACI Africa.
Since July, more than 142 people have been killed in the inter-communal violence between the Yaka and Teke communities, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported about the violent conflict that was reportedly sparked by a dispute over customary land taxes.
Members of the Teke community consider themselves the original inhabitants of villages spread over 200 kilometers along the Congo River.
In their May 21 collective statement, members of ASSEPKIN lament that “for more than a year, the land conflict in the territory of Kwamouth, in the Province of Mai-Ndombe, has spread like a devastating bushfire to the neighboring Provinces of Kwilu, Kwango, and even Kinshasa.”
“The recent massacres and unrest in Batshiongo, Mongata, Kipulamba, Kabuba, Tadika, and Mayobo farm, causing massive displacement of populations, continue to sow desolation and insecurity,” they add.
The Catholic Church leaders further say, “After several pastoral field visits, interviews, contacts, and testimonies collected from different segments of the population, we have come to the firm conviction that bloodthirsty, unseen hands from Kinshasa are hiding behind all these conflicts.”
“Indeed, starting from a land dispute, these conflicts are being taken over by people who defend occult political and economic interests,” they say, and add, “Clearly, we are helplessly witnessing a pure instrumentalization of these conflicts by certain politicians in search of local legitimacy.”
In their 10-point collective statement, the members of ASSEPKIN note that “behind the staging of the Teke/Yaka conflict are hidden economic interests aimed at confiscating land from the peoples who have always occupied it in peaceful coexistence.”
“We fear that these conflicts will spread to all of our provinces, taking us further away from the peace we so desire,” the Catholic Bishops in Kinshasa Ecclesiastical Province lament.
They advocate for dialogue toward lasting peace, saying, “We continue to consider that the search for peace requires the ability to dialogue and to engage in true reconciliation between the different tribes or ethnic groups in conflict. It is a matter of promoting true peace, that which the Lord Jesus brings us.”
