AFRICA/DR CONGO - Meeting of the "wise men" begins today to put an end to the massacres in the territory of Beni

Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – A three-day meeting will be held today, December 17, in Beni, North Kivu (eastern Democratic Republic of Congo) to try to put an end to the spiral of violence that is shaking the Territory Beni, where only in past weeks 270 people have been killed by armed groups (see Fides 09/12/2014).
"The goal of the meeting is to bring the wisemen to talk and to listen to each other, in order to offer their contribution to stop the violence in the territory of Beni" says a note sent to Agenzia Fides by the Coordination of civil Society of North Kivu, that promoted the initiative.
The meeting will be attended by ministers, senators, deputies, Christian and Muslim religious leaders, representatives of civil society, from Beni and Butembo, from the DRC capital, Kinshasa, from Goma (capital of North Kivu), from the Eastern Province and from other parts of the Country.
"For our organization, dialogue will have to lead to the identification of the root causes that underlie the deterioration of security and the massacres that took place in Beni, in order to reach a personal and collective commitment, joint recommendations to the Congolese government and the international community for a lasting solution of the crisis", the statement concluded.
The guerrillas of the ADF-Nalu have been accused of the recent massacres. But as reported several times (see Fides 26/11/2014; 16/12/2014) several observers note that there are deeper causes behind these crimes. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 17/12/2014)


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