{"id":29269,"date":"2018-06-19T07:48:19","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T07:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=29269"},"modified":"2018-06-19T08:42:08","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T08:42:08","slug":"democratic-republic-of-congo-12-million-war-casualties-in-the-battle-over-natural-resources-monica-zorita-maria-lozano-acn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/06\/19\/democratic-republic-of-congo-12-million-war-casualties-in-the-battle-over-natural-resources-monica-zorita-maria-lozano-acn\/","title":{"rendered":"CONGO:  12 million war casualties in the battle over  natural resources &#8211; Monica Zorita &#038; Maria Lozano &#8211; ACN International"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>12 million war casualties in the battle over natural resources<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><em>The priest Father Apollinaire Cibaka Cikongo: \u201cYour country may be hell. But it is still your country. It is not easy to be a priest in the Congo. We draw our strength from God and the faith.\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A ravaged, exhausted, devastated nation. \u201cThe Democratic Republic of the Congo is a huge country that is frequented by various other countries to gain access to ore deposits as cheaply as possible. That is how they justify the wars.\u201d In these explicit and compelling terms, Father Apollinaire Cibaka Cikongo describes the situation in the second largest country of Africa in an interview with the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN<strong>)<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">There are a number of reasons why the former Belgian Congo is not able to recover. The ethnic conflicts, the widespread poverty, the never-ending wars, a government that does not want to hold elections even though its last term of office ended more than a year ago, the unceasing flood of refugees. Worldwide, The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the countries with the largest refugee populations. According to UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), more than 4.5 million internally displaced persons live in the Congo and 735,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But why is not more being said about this? This is the question that Father Apollinaire cannot stop asking himself as he draws attention to the more than 12 million victims of war \u2013 a higher number of casualties than in any of the other terrible wars that are currently being waged in other countries. \u201cIt is 500 times worse here than in Syria,\u201d he exclaims before forcefully asserting, \u201cThe silence follows the bidding of concrete interests. The economic interest in the ore deposits is stronger than all of this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cNow that there has been an outbreak of Ebola, The Congo has found its way back into the news. However: why is no one mentioning the war casualties? All losses are of course terrible, but 40 to 50 people may die during an Ebola outbreak. The geopolitical wars have cost the lives of more than 12 million people in my country. Hundreds of children are dying of hunger,\u201d he continues. \u201cGod is crying in my country. That is where you have to go to dry His tears.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a poor country but one with very rich deposits of ore. However, these riches have always been its greatest curse. \u201cThe war that began in Rwanda and spread to The Congo in 1994 was all about control over the ore deposits. Because in geological terms, The Congo is a veritable treasure trove: most of the ones that are needed by countries all over the world can be found here. If our political leadership had been good, then we would have been able to live very well,\u201d the Congolese priest laments during the interview.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Against the backdrop of this earthly hell, the Catholic Church is one of the few to break the silence. It has denounced the political situation and has come to the aid of those most in need of assistance. Not only the Congolese bishops and priests but also lay people have called for help, often at the cost of reprisals. Father Apollinaire talks about the most recent protests that took place early this year. In response, the police closed churches. \u201cPeople died, but almost no one talks about this. You have to draw attention to the tragedies that take place in The Congo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Father Apollinaire admits that he has repeatedly feared for his life. One such incident occurred in February 2017, when rebels destroyed the seminary and 77 priests in training were forced to quickly flee. They only survived because they found refuge elsewhere. The army occupied the building for four months. However, he also remembers the good things, for example, that the seminary could be reopened months after the attack thanks to national and international support from ACN and other organisations. \u201cNone of the seminarians gave up his vocation. In fact, they were joined by eleven more candidates, so that 88 seminarians are now living there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cWe draw our strength from God, from the faith. However, despite everything, we have not lost our faith in humanity \u2013 despite the atrocities, it is capable of. Your country may be hell, but it is still your country,\u201d he concludes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Unconditional support<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Father Apollinaire Cibaka Kikongo studied philosophy and theology in Spain. He talks about meeting very generous people who helped support the Congo financially. \u201cBegging for aid is part of my work. We cannot stop. We cannot simply sit back and do nothing, because people would die without help. We unceasingly ask God, we unceasingly ask people to help our people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">He admits that, just as in many other places, the life of a priest in The Congo is not easy. The priest lives under the same conditions as the general population. \u201cThere are many difficulties: hunger, thirst, dangers. As priest and shepherd, you cannot think of yourself. You have to think of others.\u201d This is why, if \u201csomeone chooses to enter the seminary instead of going to university and leading a better life, we accept him. We appreciate him because of the things he is going to do without. We pray that they will become saintly priests, witnesses of Christ\u2019s love in the lives of others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Monica Zorita &amp; Maria Lozano &#8211; ACN International<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO 12 million war casualties in the battle over natural resources &nbsp; The priest Father Apollinaire Cibaka Cikongo: \u201cYour country may be hell. But it is still your country. It is not easy to be a priest in the Congo. We draw our strength from God and the faith.\u201d A ravaged, exhausted,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CONGO: 12 million war casualties in the battle over natural resources - Monica Zorita &amp; Maria Lozano - ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/06\/19\/democratic-republic-of-congo-12-million-war-casualties-in-the-battle-over-natural-resources-monica-zorita-maria-lozano-acn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CONGO: 12 million war casualties in the battle over natural resources - Monica Zorita &amp; Maria Lozano - ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO 12 million war casualties in the battle over natural resources &nbsp; The priest Father Apollinaire Cibaka Cikongo: \u201cYour country may be hell. 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