Leaders in the region call for an immediate ceasefire and the Archbishop of Kinshasa’s call for peace in the Mass celebrated yesterday in the Congolese capital
By: Giada Aquilino – Vatican News
Publication Date:
There are tense hours of waiting in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, shaken by the violence of the clashes between the rebels of the M23, supported by Rwanda, and the Congolese forces. An “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” to be implemented within five days was requested on Saturday by the leaders of Southern and Eastern Africa, who, fearing a regional conflagration, organized a joint summit in Tanzania, with the participation of Congolese president Félix Tshishekedi – connected via video conference – and Rwandan president, Paul Kagame. The outcome of the summit, welcomed by the European Union, reaffirmed the commitment to support the African country in “preserving its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” not forgetting a land already devastated in the last thirty years by recurring fighting in the provinces of North and South Kivu. It was precisely to this prolonged suffering of the local populations that Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop of Kinshasa, referred to yesterday in the Mass for peace and in memory of the victims in the Kivu territories, celebrated in the Congolese capital: “The nation is in danger,” he immediately warned.
Deaths and displaced people: the need for a “real and lasting” peace
The city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, was captured by the M23 and Rwandan troops at the beginning of February after fighting that, according to the UN, has caused at least 2,900 deaths, with over 658,000 displaced people in the last three months – of which more than 282,000 are children, reported UNICEF – while the conflict is spreading in South Kivu. According to local and security sources, clashes were reported on Saturday about sixty kilometers from the capital Bukavu, whose residents have already started leaving the city, while yesterday the front line was quieter. In his homily, Cardinal Ambongo Besungu spoke of an “unprecedented” humanitarian and security crisis, expressing pain and “indignation” at the “horrible macabre spectacle” being witnessed. The faithful were invited to pray for the victims, the injured, those affected by the conflict, and “for the return of peace,” imploring “the Lord to touch the hearts of all the protagonists, so that they all become artisans of a real and lasting peace” in the nation and in the Great Lakes region. The exhortation for everyone to “accept God’s call” for peace was reiterated several times by the cardinal, who urged to “go deep” into the reasons and evils that “divide us and pit us against each other.”
The courage to move forward
Referring to the failure of previous reconciliation initiatives, the Archbishop of Kinshasa did not shy away from the complexities of the causes of these conflicts: “identity claims,” “economic appetites,” “expansionist ambitions of some of our neighbors” who, he added, “supported by multinational corporations, are subcontracting internal complicity, all under the helpless gaze of the international community.” For years, he emphasized, “we have been denouncing” this reality, recalling that the Democratic Republic of Congo “will remain one and indivisible.” Hence the call to “abandon all selfish interests to build peace,” to emerge from despair and misery. The cardinal also urged to “embrace” the appeal launched by the Catholic and Protestant Churches to the warring parties to lay down their arms and seek “solutions to their claims through dialogue.” The hope, within the framework of the “social pact for peace and coexistence” proposed, was that the parties would agree to “sit around the same table” and follow “the path of cross-border cooperation with all neighboring countries for mutually beneficial interests, without harming anyone.” An additional effort was therefore invoked from the international community to “have the courage to go beyond mere statements and use all its influence” to stop the violence. Peace, therefore, should be seen as that “common ideal” aiming to rebuild unity and cohesion, because “if we want to save Congo,” we cannot waste “any more time.”
