Riots
8 dead, at least. Several injured (including priests). 120 people arrested: major riots all over the Democratic Republic of Congo, owing to the massive repression of protests by the army. Father Apollinaire Cibaka Cikongo, teacher at the major seminary of Christ the King, in Malole, illustrated the facts occurred last 31 December to Aid to the Church in Need: “Parishioners were taking part in the Holy Mass when soldiers opened fire”. “Believers were going to take part in a pacific demonstration set up by the Lay Committee – he added. – The initiative was meant to ask President Kabila to follow the Saint Sylvester agreement signed exactly one year earlier”. In accordance with those pacts, Kabila (in office from 2001) cannot serve another term, as the Constitution itself says. According to the priest, “the Church is the only influential voice in the country; as a consequence, we are in the front line”. “All media support the government, and the opposition is weak and divided into over 600 different political parties”, added Fr. Cikongo, according to whom the voices of the local Church and of the Catholic community are not enough, since Kabila is supported by western countries as well as superpowers such as India and China, protecting him in exchange for control of Congo mineral resources. “As long as these actors do nothing, there is no way to get out of this crisis”. For the priest, the international community should take measures, putting pressure on Kabila. “Everybody knows what is happening exactly. However, since our sufferings produce other people’s profits, the whole world is silent, ad guilty”.
