CRC Pastors Seek Help for Congo

The CRC’s Office of Social Justice is asking people to pray for an end to violence that has once again erupted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), forcing more than 200,000 people — mainly women and children — to flee.

“Ongoing violence and destabilization threaten the most vulnerable in the DRC,” says a prayer request posted in the Do Justice newsletter. “In our global communities and churches, this violence is not so far away.”

Strong connections between countries in central and  eastern Africa and West Michigan make this conflict hit close to home, said Rev. Emmett Harrison, former pastor of Oakdale Park CRC, where a group of refugees and immigrants from the DRC and nearby African countries worship. As many as 250 people from that part of the world live in West Michigan.

“Rebels are raping and mutilating women, burning people’s homes, and stealing their cattle in the villages where some of those who are now at Oakdale have family members,” said Harrison. “I would like to call the entire church’s attention to this issue.”

In the past two months, according to Voice of America, the United Nations Refugee Agency reports that hundreds of thousands of people “have been forced to flee surging violence between the Lendu and Hema groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri Province,” where many of those worshiping at Oakdale have roots. In addition, “U.N. monitors have recorded more than 3,000 serious human rights violations” in this area in the past 60 days. And “nearly 50 attacks are taking place on average every day against the local community.”

With hardly any place to flee, displaced people are staying with other families or sleeping in the open.

“For us, we want to tell the world what is happening. Women and children are dying every day of hunger and starvation,” said Maseruka “Claude” Ngendahayo, a CRC commissioned pastor serving at Oakdale. He was in a refugee camp in the DRC before fleeing to Rwanda and eventually coming with his family to West Michigan.

Ngendahayo was living in the Oakdale Park neighborhood when he met Harrison and, with members of the congregation he was leading, connected with Oakdale Park CRC.

He said the people who are under attack live on a plateau area of flat land and fields, making it hard to find places to hide. Many of the people in his congregation have connections to that area under siege.

Tensions have been rising in the area since late 2019, when the Congolese government led military operations against various armed groups in the region. The fighting has reignited a war that has raged sporadically for decades — until a peace deal was reached a few years ago.

“We want to speak on behalf of the people there,” said Ngendahayo. “Right now we are doing whatever we can to send food to the people there. So much of what is happening is gender-based violence.”
Harrison said he and Ngendahayo are working to find assistance within the CRCNA and elsewhere for the people in the DRC.

“With the COVID-19 crisis, it can be hard to interest others in what is going on,” said Harrison. 

There are so many other needs on people’s minds. But the people in the DRC are without food and living in unsanitary conditions outside, making them especially susceptible to sickness, including Ebola and the coronavirus, he said.

More than a hundred armed groups, such as the Ugandan-based Allied Democratic Front, are believed to operate in the eastern region of the DRC. Despite the presence of more than 16,000 U.N. peacekeepers, these groups continue to terrorize communities and control weakly governed areas, according to a press release by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which is working in eastern Congo.

“There is a total imbalance in terms of attention,” said Maureen Philippon, Congo country director for the NRC.

In its posting, Do Justice suggests this prayer: “Good Father, move to stabilize the governing bodies and instill leadership that promotes peace.

“Move in the DRC by your unlimited Spirit to protect its civilians, including vulnerable women and children, from sexual violence [and] dehumanizing oppression.

“Where conflict and violence threaten, douse [them] with your peace. Raise up peacemakers in every community. May your Spirit, through your people, bring healing to the land, bodies, and communities.”

A CRCNA leader in East Africa said prayer is appropriate and much needed in this situation in which so many people are at risk and are caught between the warring factions.

“This sad story points toward the fallen nature of humankind and its desperate longing for a Savior,” said the leader. “As we stand together in solidarity with the victims of this tragedy, let’s continue to pray to God for his saving grace, love, and hope for our world through Christ.”