The Pope cried «shame» at the «external and internal forces» that provoke war and violence in the DR Congo and asked that every woman «be respected, protected and valued», especially in the east of the African country, where more than 100 militias are active, fighting each other for the exploitation of coltan mines and which has experienced an upsurge in violence in recent months.
«It causes shame and indignation to know that insecurity, violence and war, which tragically strike so many people, are fed not only by external forces, but also by internal ones, for interests and to obtain advantages,» said the Pontiff in a meeting with the victims of this part of the country at the Apostolic Nunciature.
During the meeting, several Congolese who have suffered violence throughout their lives participated. One of them, Bijoux Makumbi Kamala, now 17 years old, told the Pope that she was raped in Goma «like an animal» several times a day for 19 months by the guerrillas.
On his second day in the country, Francis condemned the «armed violence, the massacres, the abuses, the destruction and occupation of villages, the plundering of fields and cattle, which continue to be perpetrated».
The Democratic Republic of Congo has been facing for months the resurgence of the armed group M23, which has conquered large swathes of the territory of North Kivu, a province bordering Rwanda, which the DRC government and the UN accuse of interference.
Relations between the DRC and Rwanda have been in crisis since the massive arrival in eastern DRC of Rwandan Hutus accused of having massacred the Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. After a period of diplomatic relaxation, the conflict regained intensity in May, when the Congolese government summoned the Rwandan ambassador to denounce the country’s alleged support for the M23.
«A new future will come if the other, whether Tutsi or Hutu, is no longer an adversary or an enemy, but a brother and a sister in whose heart it is necessary to believe that there exists, even if hidden, the same desire for peace,» said Francis.
In this way, he made it clear that «violence is never» acceptable, nor justifiable, and even less so for Christians. In a country where there are 45 million Catholics, the Pope pointed out that «hatred only generates more hatred and violence, more violence». «Dear Congolese, do not let yourselves be seduced by persons or groups who incite violence in your name. God is the God of peace and not of war. Preaching hatred is blasphemy, and hatred always corrodes the heart of man. He who lives by violence, in fact, never lives well; he thinks he saves his life and, instead, is devoured by a whirlwind of evil that, driving him to fight the brothers and sisters with whom he has grown up and lived for years, kills him from within», he said.
Thus, he also recalled the Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio, killed in 2021 in the Congo in circumstances not yet clarified. «Some lost their lives while serving peace, like Ambassador Luca Attanasio, the guard Vittorio Iacovacci and the driver Mustapha Milambo, killed two years ago in the east of the country. They were sowers of hope and their sacrifice will not be lost,» said the Pope, who for security reasons was unable to travel to Goma, where two weeks ago an attack was perpetrated against an evangelical church.
«Sons and daughters of Ituri, of North and South Kivu, I am with you, I embrace and bless you all. I bless every child, every adult, every elderly person, every person wounded by violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in particular every woman and every mother. And I pray that women, every woman, will be respected, protected and valued. To attack a woman and a mother is to do it to God himself, who took from a woman the human condition of a mother,» he concluded.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)