March 16, 2009 issue
Congo pastor calls for help
By Mennonite Weekly Review staffPage:
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Pastor Mukambu Ya’Namuisai of the Mennonite Church of Congo is challenging Mennonites around the world to join peacemaking efforts in eastern Congo.
Ya’Namuisai laments that the provinces of North and South Kivu, once known as fertile agricultural land, are now a military theater as armed groups fight for mineral resources.
“In this region there is not only coltan and gold, but men, women and children who need to find human dignity, and also Rwandan and Congolese politicians and leaders of armedrebel groups, all created in God’s image,” Ya’Namuisai said, through translation by Timothy Lind of Mennonite World Conference.
“But in this part of the world, much of humanity in the image of God lives in an unacceptable state of misery and poverty,” Ya’Namuisai said in a report distributed by MWC.
Ya’Namuisai, who is also part of the Council for Peace and Reconciliation in Congo, said people in eastern Congo suffer under the extortion and looting of the various armed groups.
The Rwandan and Congolese armies are cooperating with the aim of stopping Rwandan Hutu militias in eastern Congo. In January, Rwanda arrested Gen. Laurent Nkunda, a deposed Tutsi rebel leader formerly seen as a Rwandan ally in fighting the Hutu militias.
The arrest raises many questions, Ya’Namuisai said.
“Is peace in the east a reality or a utopian idea?” he asked.
Ya’Namuisai noted that a Mennonite church with 500 members has recently been planted in south Kivu by churches in western Congo.
“Today, because of the cost of transport and security, Mennonites from the west are cut off from those of the east, and thus the evangelization of the church in eastern Congo is weakened,” Ya’Namuisai said. “Mennonites in the east need spiritual, moral, material and financial support from other Mennonites.”
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