Tens of 1000’s took half within the nationwide peaceable rallies organised by the Catholic Church.
Tens of 1000’s of Christians took to the streets throughout the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Sunday to protest violence in jap areas, as church leaders accused the worldwide group of hypocrisy over Rwanda’s alleged position within the preventing.
After Sunday companies, churchgoers within the capital Kinshasa and different main cities heeded a name from the Convention of Catholic Bishops to show in opposition to the battle with the M23 insurgent group, which Congo accuses Rwanda of supporting.
Rwanda denies this.
“We are saying no to conflict, no to a divided Congo,” mentioned Blaise Emmanuel, vicar at St Elizabeth’s parish, who with different monks led a procession in Montgafula, one of many poorest municipalities in Kinshasa.
The mass protests had been essentially the most important since an escalation in preventing in latest months between state forces and M23. The violence has displaced an estimated 390,000 folks, in line with the United Nations Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Demonstrators in Kinshasa sang and carried banners studying: “No to Balkanisation, no to the hypocrisy of the worldwide group. The DRC will not be on the market.”
Many in Congo have for years accused the West of failing to carry Rwanda to account for its alleged position in stoking insecurity within the east.
The European Parliament in late November known as on Rwanda to not assist the M23 rebels. However final week the European Fee was criticised in Congo for a choice to present 20 million euros ($21m) to assist Rwandan troops serving to struggle rebels in Mozambique.
On the finish of the march in Montgafula, protesters sang the nationwide anthem and a priest holding a Congolese flag climbed onto a chair to handle the gang.
“It’s the small nation that’s preventing us,” mentioned Father Theophile Landu in reference to Rwanda. “Behind it are the USA and the European Union. We inform them that they have to cease the hypocrisy.”
In August, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned studies by UN specialists that Rwanda continued to assist the M23 had been “credible”.
Rwanda’s authorities has disputed the findings.
Anti-Western sentiments had been aired in different cities in protests the place high-profile attendees included the top of the Senate, a number of ministers, and lawmakers from the ruling celebration and the opposition.
Congo and Rwanda took half in talks in late November geared toward discovering options to the battle. Different negotiations led by the seven-member East African Group (EAC) are ongoing.
