For several years, the people here have been caught in the midst of a complex conflict, widely seen to revolve around the extraction of mineral resources. Nearly 5 million people have been killed according to the Congolese church officials.
"We need peace. Our country has gone through hardships. We need your support," Rev. Muhasanya Lubunga, moderator of the Church of Christ in Congo (ECC), South Kivu told a Living Letters delegation from the World Council of Churches (WCC).
The delegation travelled to Bukavu in South Kivu and Goma in North Kivu provinces from 9 to 11 July. In their meeting with church leaders, government officials and community members, the delegation heard how the churches had promoted peace and reconciliation and mobilised relief, against rebels’ terror.
"We know if different groups cannot live in peace with each other, the war will remain," said Rev. Kakule Molo, president of the Baptist Community in Central Africa, at a meeting in Goma.
The brutal force directed against civilians in the region by the rebels is one of the key concerns of the church leaders. Reports speak of killings and mass rapes, abductions and burned-down villages.
At the same time the church is taking steps to help rebels put down their weapons. Recently several hundred agreed to disarm.
Civilian hardship
On the day the Living Letters delegation visited Bukavu, Rozette Ndakumbusoga, a farmer from the Mwenga area, was uncertain she would be able to feed her two children. About two months ago, she fled to Bukavu after fighting broke out in Mwenga.
"We did not take anything. We took off as soon as we heard the guns. There were many of us," said Ndakumbusoga. "We have come to settle here with nothing."
"All we want is for the fighting to stop, so that we can return home to our farms," she said. "We also want to take our children back to school."
Like Ndakumbusoga, Mukobelwa Ndabegelwa, a school teacher, is among the 600,000 people from the region and many more from other parts of eastern DRC who have fled to safety in Bukavu. A few years ago, the city had a population of 200,000, but now the church officials say it has nearly 1.2 million.
"I pray the war ends so that we can go back to our families and our work. But we cannot because we fear the fighting," Ndabegelwa said.
