AFRICA/DR CONGO - As humanitarian crisis continues in North Kivo, the Archbishop of Bukavu asks leading powers to cease their interference, as it only adds to tensions in Congo

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – It seems that the fragil truce declared by rebel leader Laurent Nkunda in North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, is being kept, however the humanitarian crisis remains serious. The Italian Friends Association of Raoul Follereau sent Agenzia Fides a copy of the appeal being launched by Sr. Giovanna Gallicani, collaborator in the AIFO Project for the children in Goma, where refugees have left their towns, which are almost always in flames, and are moving towards Goma, where covering the people's basic needs has become impossible. There are reports of over 2 million people living in provisional camps where they lack everything: water, food, and medicine. Sr. Giovanna says: “We have spent two terrible days in which the national army has committed abuses of all kinds, including killing and looting. Uncertainty remains, as well as fear...Let us pray that this war comes to an end! The refugees of the war have flooded into the city and until now, very few are looking after them...we are waiting to see what happens in the days to come.”
Since 2004, the AIFO has been working with the Brothers of Charity in the Mental Health Center in Goma, which serves 750 children between the ages of 0-14, each year. They are children with psychiatric and behavioral problems related to war trauma. Due to the drastic situation in recent weeks, the number of children who come to the center has tripled. As the border with Rwanda has been closed, parents have been left without medicines, implying a serious risk in being able to care for their children. The Congregation of the Little Daughters, from the nearby Parish of Ndosho, of which Sor Giovanna is a member, collaborates in the Center and is bringing aid to all the people camping around the city, awaiting help. Unfortunately, however, supplies are running low.
On the political plain, following last week's Nairobi Summit, whose only resolution was a call to end the fighting, the Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) held in Johannesburg (South Africa) resulted in the members' decision to place their own troops at the service of Congo, in order to establish peace.
Last week, the new Congolese Premier Adolphe Muzito traveled to North and South Kivu to meet with the people there and reaffirm the backing of the government in Kinshasa. Archbishop François-Xavier Maroy Rusengo of Bukavu (the capital of South Kivu), wrote an open letter to the Congolese Premier saying that “the Congolese drama holds economic and political implications on an international, national, and local level.” The international ones, the Archbishop says, go beyond Africa alone, and suggests that a Summit be held “involving the USA, the European Union, and several Asian nations, in order to settle geostrategic, economic, and even feudal interests that are a cause for mortal tensions in our region in general and in Congo in particular.” (LM) (Agenzia Fides 11/11/2008)