Goma, a martyred city that does not lose hope
The testimony of a Xaverian missionary originally from Congo: Goma, abandoned by the world, continues to hope
(by Fr. Emmanuel Adili Mwassa, Xaverian)
Many have asked me to tell how I experienced the war situation in the east of the country.
First of all I have not experienced firsthand the war that has deeply affected the city of Goma causing the death of more than 3600 people – according to the information that is being updated day by day. From 700 dead today we are at 3600. And who knows what figure will be reached tomorrow.
I passed through Goma a few days before the outbreak of war. But in reality Goma was already cut off from all the
My intent is not to describe how this tragedy happened, but to give some impressions and some serious consequences of this umpteenth suffering imposed on the innocent.
I have heard people defend the war. I have heard people justify the deaths of thousands. I have heard people rejoice. I have heard phrases inclined to give the positive reasons for the deaths of people.
War lowers man. War imbestializes the human.
There is no reason that elevates war. War makes the human less.
I have seen people who have lost loved ones. I have seen people who have lost everything. I have seen dead bodies left like that for days. I saw people who had no news of their own: because they were killed. I visited refugee camps.
Juste imagine a family of more than 7 people under a two-square-meter tent with no water or utilities or food. Without anything. Now these camps have been destroyed, bombed, emptied. Where are these poor people?
While men in ties sit down to find the solution with endless meetings, women are being raped, children are starving and not going to school, men are falling with weapon in hand.
In neighboring South-Kivu, specifically in Bukavu, fear has settled in. A lot of fear. Those rebels kill. They rape. They maim.
Congolese politicians are cutting some social media to limit access to information: Twitter, Tik-tok that are followed by a large number. A town in Bukavu (Minova) is in the hands of the rebels. It is a strategic town on the border with North Kivu. Not much is known by now about what is happening. What will Bukavu look like tomorrow?
Where is the light in this gloomy situation?
I have seen the light of Humanity. Ubuntu.
People of good will, missionaries and missionaries
who welcome refugees, share the little they have with them.
And they are many. We Xaverian missionaries have a parish in Goma.
The pastor has arranged classrooms to take in some families and assist them.
When will this war end? It is not known. However, I see a silencing of a large part of humanity. In fact, I have friends who tell me they knew nothing about Goma. To humiliate one person is to humiliate all of humanity.
To be in solidarity with a brother in the last point of the world
Is to be in solidarity with one’s own humanity, with oneself. Indifference ignites and kindles the fire.
To you who are reading me: if we don’t act, all of Great Lakes Africa is in danger of becoming ungovernable, unmanageable.
Who takes advantage of it? Who uses the blood cell phone? The Congolese politicians?
Who plans to have electric batteries at the expense of human lives?
More than 9 million people have died. Not enough. perhaps.
Let us be indignant and strive to improve this world each where it is.
Putting ourselves in each other’s place helps us overcome the culture of indifference.
Source
- Father Emmanuel Adili Mwassa