AFRICA/DR CONGO - Kidnappings: new plague in North Kivu: more than 600 seizures since the beginning of the year

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - 14 members of a Congolese NGO kidnapped in North Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been released.
The episode, stress missionary sources to Agenzia Fides, is just the latest in an upsurge of kidnappings that take place in the area and especially along the road that links the capital, Gomba to Butembo.
For several months, kidnappings have become "fashionable", say the missionaries of the "Peace Network in Congo" in a note sent to Fides. Omar Kavota, executive director of the Study Center for the promotion of peace, democracy and human rights, claims to have identified about 600 cases of kidnapping, committed on this road since the start of 2015. This situation worries the local merchants who use this road to reach the north of the province. The vice president of the civil society of Vitshumbi, Kambale Sikuli Simwa, asked the military authorities to find a solution to this phenomenon of kidnapping which has become another means of enrichment for the armed groups in the region: perhaps the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the Mai-Mai or simple armed bandits.
The scourge of kidnapping is added to the massacres against civilians. On 1 October, on the occasion of the commemoration of the first anniversary of the massacre of civilians, perpetrated in Beni on October 2, 2014 (see Fides 06/10/2014), the coordination of local civil society pointed out that, in the territory of Beni in North Kivu and in just one year, more than five hundred people were killed with machetes, axes and hammers. The President of the Civil Society of Beni, Teddy Kataliko, recalled that these acts were committed in the following cities: Mukoko, Linzo Sisenes, Apetinasana, Mayimoya, Kisiki, Eringeti, Kainama, Malehe, Kokola, Oicha, Ngite, Masulukwede, Vemba, Kadou, Ngadi, Munzambay, Kibidiwe, Matembo, Mavivi and Matiba. With regards to these massacres, the coordination of civil society qualifies them of crimes against humanity and calls for an international investigation to identify and prosecute the real culprits responsible for these acts. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 04/11/2015)

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