AFRICA/DR CONGO - "The massacres in Butembo are a crime against humanity" denounce religious orders in the area

Friday, 10 April 2015

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - "The massacres in the region of Mbau, in the Diocese of Butembo-Beni are clearly a crime against humanity", said the message written by members of the General Councils of different religious Orders and Congregations in the diocese of Butembo- Beni, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where violence is committed against the civilian population, by some armed groups.
In that same area we have not had any news of three Assumptionist fathers (Augustinians of the Assumption) since October 2012, of Congolese nationality, Jean-Pierre Ndulani, Anselme Wasikundi and Edmond Bamutute, who disappeared on the evening of October 19, 2012 in their parish Notre Dame des Pauvres in Mbau, 22 km from Beni (see Fides 22/10/2012).
"From October 2014 to this very day, we have had to face horrible massacres. From the information we have received, peace-abiding and unarmed citizens have been abducted and murdered in villages of the territory of Beni. Night-time raids by armed men have resulted in people being kidnapped and others being killed", says the message.
"The nature of these killings is unbelievable: some had their throats slit; children’s arms were gashed; a number of women, even though some were pregnant, were raped and disemboweled; there were cases of entire families being massacred. Victims were killed brutally with machetes, knives, or axes. Up to the present, more than 400 people have been butchered with the same inhumanity".
These killings have had significant after-effects: food shortages, the interruption or already malfunctioning of medical services, displacement of peoples, migrations.
"It is unacceptable that the instability of the DRC and killings of this nature persist and that the Country continues to be plunged into this spiral of violence", say the religious. The missionaries conclude with an appeal to UN institutions and the international community "to commit themselves to work for the stability of the DRC, so that the 'sleeping giant' may awaken and contribute to its growth and to the development of the people". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 10/04/2015)


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