Displaying items by tag: DRC

When Pope Francis visited the DRC he said that the rich world must realise that people are more precious than minerals in the earth beneath them. Speaking to dignitaries at the presidential palace, he talked of ‘terrible forms of exploitation, unworthy of humanity, where vast mineral wealth fuels war, displacement and hunger. Hands off the DRC. Hands off Africa. Stop choking Africa: it is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered.’ Congo has some of the world's richest diamond deposits as well as gold, copper, and other minerals. ‘The poison of greed has smeared its diamonds with blood,’ he said. An estimated 5.7 million people are internally displaced in Congo; 26 million face severe hunger, largely due to armed conflict. Half of the population are Roman Catholics, and the Church plays a crucial role in running schools and health facilities, as well as promoting democracy.

On 25th January, Rwanda's military fired at a Congolese fighter jet that had violated their airspace for the third time recently. The DRC called the shooting ‘an act of war.’ This incident comes a week before Pope Francis is to make the first papal visit to Kinshasa since 1985. The Pope plans to shine a spotlight on the bloodshed of the conflict in eastern DRC, one of the world's most resource-rich yet conflict-ridden regions. On 15th January an improvised explosive device ripped through the congregation at a baptismal service conducted by a blind pastor. It severed limbs and killed at least 17 people. This attack in North Kivu province is just the latest terrorist outrage in the DRC by the Allied Democratic Forces, one of the most dangerous of dozens of armed groups in eastern DRC. As well as physical injuries, terrorist violence has left DRC Christians suffering serious emotional trauma.

Recently, a joint military operation between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo successfully rescued over one hundred civilians who were being held hostage by the Islamic extremist group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). The military task force launched airstrikes on the ADF rebel camps for over two months before the rescue operation. One of the rescued women said, ‘The soldiers arrived when we were praying. They fired several bullets, which allowed us to flee to the middle of the bush.’ The ADF started as a force opposing the alleged mistreatment of Muslims by Uganda. It later expanded to the DRC, where it has grown and spread. It is the most violent of 120 armed groups in eastern DRC and has committed crimes against Congolese civilians, including many Christians.

The UN’s peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has denounced the killings of fifty villagers by M23 in the conflict-wracked east, and called for an investigation to ‘bring justice’. The March 23 movement, or M23, is a Congolese Tutsi rebel group that was dormant for years. It took up arms again last November, seizing Bunagana town on Uganda’s border in June. ‘The UN said that the killings could constitute crimes under international humanitarian law, as well as violating the recent ceasefire. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese doctor who won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping rape victims in the strife-torn region, also expressed horror at reports of mass slaughter, missing people, and forced recruitment of children into conflict. Human Rights Watch said UN troops should be deployed to protect survivors. Pray that M23 is disarmed and withdraws from land it has seized as requested by the East African leaders. On 8 December the UN announced that 131 civilians had died in an attack by M23 in November. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63899461

‘People were getting sick and dying a lot,’ says Sango. ‘One of my children died from diarrhoea. We could not afford medical care, we sold our mattresses, plates and clothes to pay for medicine and had nothing left to sell. ‘Our children were often ill and couldn’t go to school so we didn’t have time to farm and lost the respect of our community. Our despair turned to joy when Tearfund came and taught the importance of good toilets and washing our hands to prevent diseases, including diarrhoea. We built our first family toilet with a hand washing device. It has been three months since anyone has been ill! We have time and strength to farm and we can eat three meals a day, not just one. Our children are back at school, and after we have harvested our next crop we will buy some clothes.’

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has withdrawn troops from the eastern military base of Rumangabo, ceding ground in the battle against the M23 rebel group. M23 resumed fighting and accused the DRC government of failing to honour an agreement to integrate its fighters into the army. The fresh clashes saw the rebel group make advances across North Kivu province. The loss of the key military base is a setback for DRC and a further blow to the security outlook in the conflict-hit east. Thousands remain displaced from the region. Kiwanja’s fall is another humiliation for the government in Kinshasa. It raises serious questions, once again, as to how an extremely small rebellion can do this on their own. UN experts found solid evidence Rwanda had been providing military aid to M23 in eastern DRC. Rwanda’s government has disputed the findings.

On 23 April WHO reported an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A patient aged 31 began experiencing symptoms on 5 April. He was sick for over a week before going to a local health facility. On 21 April he was admitted to an Ebola treatment centre but died that day. Recognising the symptoms, health workers submitted samples to test for Ebola. Now there are investigations to determine the source of the outbreak. The disease has had a two-week head start and medics are playing catch-up. The positive news is that the health authorities have more experience than anyone else in the world at controlling Ebola outbreaks quickly. By 27 April everyone had been inoculated in the province’s capital city, and over 230 Ebola contacts had been identified and monitored. Three vaccination teams will soon reach those at highest risk. See

The mining of key metals such as cobalt for car batteries has been linked to appalling working conditions amounting to modern slavery in countries such as DRC where much of the world’s cobalt is sourced. Also, environmental damage is caused by lithium extraction in Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Responding to news that the Government will be investing £100m in Britishvolt's new 'gigafactory' in Northumberland to boost production of electric car batteries, Amnesty International said although the news is a leap forward for British industry, offering jobs and a very meaningful opportunity for the UK to decarbonise transport in the fight against climate change, it is absolutely crucial that the Government, Britishvolt, and its investors ensure there are diligence systems in place. They must be honest and transparent about the environmental and human rights Britishvolt faces in sourcing cobalt, lithium, nickel, copper and other battery metals. See

Over a dozen lives are claimed in nightly raids in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On 1 March Italian diplomats and World Food Programme workers were killed in an attack on a UN convoy. Officials blame the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, for this incident - the latest in a disturbing trend. Armed groups have killed over a thousand civilians in eastern DRC since late 2019. ‘In 2021, we’ve seen mass attacks by these Muslim extremists,’ said Voice of the Martyrs Canada. There are more than 100 armed groups operating in DRC. Not all of them are Islamic, but those that are have one goal in mind. They are radical, and even though they may have lost some control in places like Iraq and Syria they’re doing whatever they can to cause destruction, particularly where a large majority of people are Christian.

The ministry of health declared an Ebola epidemic in the N’Zerekore region of Guinea on 14 February, following seven confirmed cases and three deaths. US government agencies are closely monitoring the epidemic, and coordinating with the Guinea government, the World Health Organisation, and other partners to provide rapid, localised outbreak control. This outbreak follows a declaration of an outbreak on 7 February by the DRC’s minister of health. The previous West African outbreak in 2014-16 killed over 11,300. The source of infection is under investigation. It is important to monitor one’s health for 21 days after travelling to an area experiencing an Ebola outbreak.