Since the month of November 2019, the massacres in North Kivu have intensified. No one is asking what strategic motives are behind this resurgence. These butchers, who have often been active in the eastern region of this area, that is to say, the eastern flank of the city of Beni watered by the Semuliki River, are now carrying out operations on the western flank of the city as far away as the peaceful populations of the Ituri Forest, in towns bordering North Kivu Province. In the eyes of some analysts, this intensification is a strategic move by the killers from east to west and reveals the enforcement of an order to carry out, as soon as possible, a plan motivated by some extravagant expansionist desires. The thesis of a balkanisation is the one most often proposed in Christian quarters, especially Catholic ones. People holding certain political positions, depending on the divergent interests and ideologies that underlie them, speak of the possibility of occupation or secession, especially when one considers that these massacres frequently occur in places situated several hundred yards away from government military or Monusco camps.

In recent months the number of deaths can be counted in the hundreds. In November, there were more than 130 victims. Since November till now the number has exceeded 700 victims. The inhabitants of the towns of Mangina and Mantumbi in the Territory of Beni, and those of Biakato and Alima, among others, in the Ituri Forest region, have been forced to flee to the cities of Beni and Butembo, which are now experiencing relative calm. Considering the atrocity of the massacres and their extent, no sector of the population has been untouched by this disaster. The young and the old, students of grammar schools, high schools, and universities, teachers and professors, businessmen and politicians, all of them have had to flee since the latest massacres of Mangina and Makiki.

In spite of the calls by political, administrative, and military authorities, people have been reluctant to return home. Most often the massacres target ordinary populations living from cultivating fields and raising livestock as well as social structures like schools, dispensaries, and churches. Beyond the triangle of death linking the city of Beni with the towns of Oicha and Kamango, the site of the massacres has extended to the far west regions of Beni-Eringeti and Beni-Biakato, not to mention recently to the foothills of Mount Rwenzori. By day or by night peaceful populations are often taken by surprise by these murderers, populations carrying out their everyday activities, working in their fields, traveling on business, or simply resting at home. These criminals spare neither infants nor 80-, 90-, or 100-year olds. They catch their prey, and, before slaughtering them, they torture them by dragging their heavy spoils or by removing human organs like genitals, arms, feet, ears or tongues, etc, until they die. This butchery raises incredible fear among populations to the point that nobody, once a rumor spreads that these criminals are in the area, can afford to stay around.

From the beginning of the massacres in 2014 to this day when their extent has become more and more terrifying, there have been certain attempts to condemn them, to show solidarity with the peoples of the region, and to mount defense strategies. First of all at the national level, an army, the FARDC, has proposed a series of measures to neutralize the situation ; they have had no success except on the media. Visits from national figures, whether political, civil, or religious have borne no fruit or have even aggravated the situation. Finally, in certain quarters, provincial or national legislators from the region have proposed arming populations with machetes citing article 63 of the Congolese Constitution (self-defense). Pressure groups made up of indignant citizens try to act but without any real effectiveness. So the daily carnage goes on to this day and people don’t know from which saint to seek intercession. This dark cloud which has evaded every attempt to understand or pacify it has, for some, been placed into the hands of Divine Providence.

by Fr. Emmanuel Kahindo, A.A. 
Nairobi, Kenya