Bishop supports Christian Aid appeal for Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Open Doors details persecutions by ADF
In the County Down village of Dundrum, a retired bishop is placing a backpack and a water container under his Christmas tree to raise the alarm on the urgent humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the efforts of Christian Aid to help those most in need.
Multiple armed groups vie for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, most prominently the Rwanda-backed M23 group. The conflict has created a huge humanitarian crisis with more than seven million people displaced.
Former Church of Ireland Bishop Rev Trevor Williams says he understands why people can so easily have compassion fatigue when they see so many global disasters in the media.
"But here is a chance to make a real difference for individuals who actually suffered the very worst of circumstances in Congo.
He previously served as Rector of St John’s Parish in Newcastle and later as Bishop of Limerick, and chaired the Christian Aid Ireland Board for eight years.
He is asking people to make a small donation online to help people like Chance, a Congolese mother-of-eight whom Christian Aid is helping pull out of utter poverty, since she lost her husband and home.
Escaping an attack on her village with her children, she walked for 50 miles carrying her two-month-old son, to find relative safety in a camp in South Kivu.
Now in a temporary shelter, she has nothing of value and fears her husband is dead. Despite having very young children to care for, she works in fields to earn 45p a day to buy food for her children.
“Here in the camp, people need food, clothes, jerrycans, saucepans – we have nothing at all," Chance told Christian Aid.
“See how we live here, we have nothing like blankets and mattresses. This is the case for everyone in this camp.”
“The life I am living with this baby is very painful. Even finding soap to wash him and his clothes is so difficult.”
Chance proudly ran a successful shop back in her village, before she had to flee. Today, it’s painful to be in such urgent need of support.
“A small amount of money would allow me to start a small business like the one I used to have."
Rev Williams explained why he is putting a backpack and jerry can under his Christmas tree.
"As we're opening our presents and having a good time, we'll be also thinking about people like Chance, who will be having a very different Christmas,” he said.
"Chance’s experience reminds me of the Christmas story itself; Joseph and Mary were forced to travel a long distance to Bethlehem where they knew nobody. And it was only through the generosity of strangers that they found a place where Jesus could be born."
To support the appeal visit www.caid.ie/Christmas
Last year BBC monitoring found the Islamic State affiliated group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) was by far the deadliest group in eastern Congo, responsible for 52% of all civilian deaths – 700 from March to August.
The US State Department says that all communities are suffering, but that most victims were Christian, as the religious majority. It said that since 2015, ADF had released increasing amounts of propaganda including “an increased focus on efforts to kill non-Muslim civilians”.
According to human rights group Open Doors, no reliable figures have been kept on the numbers killed by Islamist terror groups in DRC since 1995, when ADF first emerged.
"What can be stated with confidence is that the scale of violence is severe, and that Christians constitute a substantial share of the victims by demographic reality alone," a spokesman said.
In 2002 it said that ISIS-ADF killed between 1,063 and 1,198 people, abducted 714–839, and injured at least 174 people.
Open Doors says the conflict in eastern DRC is dominated by local and regional armed groups whose identities are primarily ethnic, political, and economic.
While most fighters originate from predominantly Christian communities, the violence is not structured around Christian religious ideology.
The major exception is the ADF, which operates as an explicitly Islamist movement, Open Doors said.