Category Archives: Politics

Last month, I posted a disturbing story and images: Help Needed for Displaced in Congo. The number of internal refugees who have settled in Bunia, Congo, continues to grow.  The camp now holds over 86,000 people, many of whom are women and children who have traveled for weeks under very dangerous circumstances.  The Congo Network of the Episcopal and Anglican churches gets regular updates from the Reverend Bisoke Balikenga who lives and works in Bunia, DRC.  The Congo Network is chaired by the Rev. Canon Dr. Isaac Kawuki Mukasa (Africa Relations, Episcopal Church).  The US media is reporting very little on this massive humanitarian crisis. I asked the Rev. Bisoke to send the Congo Network photos so that we could help tell the story.

Particularly disturbing were the photos of the girl Rachel and her little sister.  The Rev. Bisoke wrote with the photo below: “Rachel sister just come from the hospital, her left arm was cut by the rebel and Rachel was cut in the head and the mother was killed. Rachel is not in a good condition you can see her head. Please pray for them because the life which they have now it is not the good one.”  The Rev. Bisoke has taken 30 refugees into his own home, in addition to his family of 8.  He is getting some help from friends.  If you would like to help displaced people in the Congo, please donate to Episcopal Relief and Development (designate your donation to DRC). Your money will go toward food, clothing, shelter and assistance with trauma.

Recent news stories include:

• “Congo crisis worsening, EU says, as government shuns aid conference” 25 March 2018 in Reuters
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-eu/congo-crisis-worsening-eu-says-as-government-shuns-aid-conference-idUSKBN1H10PK?il=0
• “UN: $1.7 Billion Needed for DRC Humanitarian Crisis” 19 March 2018 in VOA News 
  https://www.voanews.com/a/un-says-almost-2-billion-dollars-needed-for-drc-humanitarian-crisis/4305877.html
  
• “DRC Violence: This Time It’s Different” 16 March 2018 in Fair Observer
  https://www.fairobserver.com/region/africa/joseph-kabila-democratic-republic-congo-violence-conflict-africa-news-headlines-76540/
• “Ethnic Violence in DRC’s Northeast Displaces at Least 60 000” 18 March 2018 in​ News24
  https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/ethnic-violence-in-drcs-northeast-displaces-at-least-60-000-20180318
• “Uganda Cholera Outbreak Slows, But Violence in DRC Complicates Recovery” 10 March 2018 in​ ​Devex
  https://www.devex.com/news/uganda-cholera-outbreak-slows-but-violence-in-drc-complicates-recovery-92344
• “Militias are Burning Villages in Congo” ​8 March 2018 in New York Times – Visual Investigations​
  ​ https://nyti.ms/2G43nk5​
• “How We Identified Burned Villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo” 8 March 2018 in New York Times
  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/insider/burned-villages-democratic-republic-congo.html
• ​”DRC: Thousands Flee Amid Surge in ‘Horrific Violence” 21 February 2018 in Al Jazeera
  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/thousands-flee-atrocities-south-eastern-drc-180220143919759.html​

Photos copyright 2018 by the Rev. Bisoke Balikenga – used with permission.
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Violence has recently gotten worse in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I was on a call a few days ago during which we learned of tens of thousands of displaced people, about two thousand of whom are now seeking help near a hospital in Bunia. The Reverend Bisoke Balikenga sent us the photos you see here of families in Bunia in need of food, water, firewood, bedding, and schools for the children. We are coordinating our aid efforts through Episcopal Relief and Development.

Since 2015, I have been a part of the Congo Network group of the Episcopal Church. The group is chaired by the Rev. Canon Dr. Isaac Kawuki Mukasa (Africa Relations, Episcopal Church). I was nominated to join the Congo Network group by my Bishop, the Right Rev. Mary Gray-Reeves (of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, California).  We meet by phone and online about quarterly to share information and coordinate support work. I have been taking the Congo Network minutes.

There is small awareness in the United States about the size and severity of the Congo’s humanitarian crisis. Little news is published, mostly by non-US media and organizations:

• • ‘I knew I had to get out’ of DR Congo (BBC, 17 Feb 2018)

• The Elders call for urgent action on political and humanitarian crises in DR Congo (Kofi Annan Foundation, 15 Feb 2018)
• Congo is sliding back to bloodshed (The Economist, 15 Feb 2018)
• DRC violence risks ‘spreading’ as 22,000 flee in a week (Al Jazeera, 14 Feb 2018)
• Congo’s mega-crisis at deadly tipping point (Norwegian Refugee Council, 14 Feb 2018)
• Congolese refugees perish as growing numbers seek safety in Uganda (United Nations Refugee Agency, 13 Feb 2018)
• Congo’s Slide Into Chaos (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2018)
• DR Congo conflict leaves 400,000 children malnourished (Al Jazeera, 23 Jan 2018)
• DR Congo displacement crisis ‘worse than Middle East’ (BBC, 6 Dec 2017)

However, if I did not know about it directly from the Congo Network, I may not have heard about this crisis at all. I have to go searching for news of the Congo – it does not appear in my regular news sources.  I have never been so aware of the limitations of the US media and how news is distributed.

Congo is about 70% Christian and many of the displaced people are seeking help from their churches. Pope Francis has raised awareness by holding a day of prayer and fasting on 23 February for those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.

If you would like to help displaced people in the Congo, please donate to Episcopal Relief and Development (designate your donation to DRC).

Photos copyright 2018 by the Rev. Bisoke Balikenga – used with permission.
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