IMPORTANT PRAYER REQUEST:

Six Individuals Were Recently Kidnapped
Michael Sharp (from Hesston, KS) was one of them.
Please pray for the safe return of all six people.

ADDENDUM: The following information is from an online source, BeniLuberoOnline. It has been condensed from a longer article, which was translated from the orignal French. We cannot verify the accuracy of the information or the opinions expressed concerning the political situation.

This conflict began in the summer of 2016 when this guru (traditional chief Kamuina Nsapu), at the head of a political-religious movement, decided to make a crusade against Kinshasa and its local representatives in order to denounce the corruption and the waste of the central State. The chief (Kamuina Nsapu) was killed in August 2016 during a particularly violent military operation. From the time of the death of this leader of the militia, the province was plunged into a spiral of reprisal-repression, which extended into the other Kasai provinces east and west.

In February 2017, the cycle of violence increased after the circulation of a video, which showed Congolese soldiers killing at point blank range some of the Kamuina Nsapu followers who were armed only with sticks. The video caused a great stir. The government initially denied its authenticity before authorizing the formation of the commission to investigate what seem to be summary executions of civilians.

Several days later, three communal graves were discovered in connection with the violence, which had taken place since the Kamuina Nsapu insurrection. The militia groups swept toward the town of Kananga to seek revenge, but they were stopped in the outlying areas of the town by the army. The militia groups ransacked the grounds of a convent.

On 11 March, 18 militia fighters were killed in skirmishes with the police at Mwene-Ditu, at Lomami in ex-Kasai-oriental. The security crisis took a completely different form the next day, Sunday, 12 March, with the disappearance of two foreign UN experts who were on a mission in the region: the Swedish woman Zaida Catalán, the American Michael Sharp and four Congolese men who were accompanying them. A “kidnapping” denounced by the Congolese government who accused “negative forces.” Monusco, the UN mission in Congo, is actively pursuing an investigation and accuses, like the Congolese authorities, the Kamuina Nsapu of being behind this kidnapping.

PLEASE PRAY for the safe return of all six people.

© 2017 Hope4Congo