CAFOD is concerned at reports of renewed fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The fighting broke out this week in areas west of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, between the Congolese army and the rebel group M23. People in towns and living in camps have been caught in the crossfire.
People in Mugunga camps I and III and in Ndosho on the outskirts of Goma reported hearing heavy shelling nearby. For many previously displaced by fighting, this will be the fifth or sixth time they have had to flee in the last two years.
CAFOD’s partner Caritas Goma says that it has registered 732 families who fled from the Mutaho area to St Francois Xavier parish in Ndosho. A spokesman for Caritas Goma says: “M23 troops resumed fighting in the early hours of Monday 20 May. These clashes have caused a panic amongst several villages and many people have moved to neighbourhoods in the north of Goma. We are already providing people with humanitarian aid.”
Last November, M23 occupied Goma, forcing more than 140,000 people to flee their homes. CAFOD worked with Church organisations to respond, providing shelter, clean drinking water and food.
M23 came under intense international pressure to leave Goma at the beginning of December 2012. Their departure and participation in peace negotiations was followed by 11 countries across the region signing up to the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement, which calls for greater efforts to tackle instability in the DRC, cooperation from the country’s neighbours, and the establishment of a new United Nations intervention force with enhanced capacity and powers.
A delegation of Congolese Bishops visited the UK this month to ask for the support of British Members of Parliament in reinforcing peace in the region. Bishop Fridolin Ambongo said: “We know that the British government has great influence over the signatories of the Framework Agreement, particularly neighbouring countries, both economically and politically. Without constant pressure on these countries, the Framework Agreement will fail. This cannot be allowed to happen.”
The Bishops said that the continued destabilisation of the country was because of the presence of both Congolese and foreign armed militia. They described these militia groups as spreading “death and desolation”, and committing human rights atrocities including rape with “extraordinary cruelty”.
The Bishops told MPs that the conflict in the DRC was being fuelled by the illegal exploitation of the country’s natural resources, which include coltan, gold and diamonds. They called on the UK to support strong measures on transparency legislation for the extractives industry.
The renewed fighting came in the week that Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary-General, visited Goma ahead of the deployment of a special UN brigade, which for the first time has a mandate to carry out targeted offensive operations against rebel groups in the eastern DRC.
CAFOD has been working in the DRC since 1995, following the Rwanda genocide, responding to emergencies and helping people to rebuild their lives after the civil war. In 2008, the CAFOD appeal responding to the Congo Crisis raised more than £2.4 million to support people in the east of the country who had been displaced by an upsurge in fighting.