DR Congo: Goma citizens fear for their lives
By Vatican News
The leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo is calling for a massive military mobilization to help fight Rwanda-backed rebels who are reportedly attempting to seize more territory in the country's east.
President Félix Tshisekedi late Wednesday vowed “a vigorous and coordinated response” to push back the rebels who have entered the country’s largest eastern city – Goma - while reaffirming his commitment to a peaceful resolution.
Meanwhile, the U.N. World Food Program reported widespread looting of food stores and warehouses in Goma where the rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighbouring Rwanda.
The M23 rebels are one of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits that are critical to much of the world’s technology.
The people in the South Kivu Province are reportedly gripped by fear as government forces fight back attempting to stop the rebels, who have already captured Goma – the capital of North Kivu.
Goma is a humanitarian hub that hosts more than 6 million people displaced by the decades-old conflict in eastern Congo.
Brother Jean Claude, a Marist brother in Congo’s capital Kinshasa, told Vatican News his brothers in the Marist mission of Bobandana in Goma are holed up in their house in fear for their lives:
Brother Jean Claude says the insecurity has so far affected the Marist Community at Bobandana Mission in Goma.
He describes the situation as very fragile noting that the city of Goma has been without water, electricity and internet connection for the past 4 days.
Expressing his hope that all this “will soon come to an end”, Br Jean Claude decries the fact that a Catholic church-owned hospital has been bombed causing deaths.
The airport, he adds, is temporarily closed and roads and the outskirts of the city are risky due to insecurity.
The Marist brother express preoccupation for the students at their schools, including 122 girls and laments the fact that some children have been recruited and forced to carry goods and weapons for the rebels “without a hope of returning to their families.”
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