A bishop in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has warned of a state of 'permanent insecurity' in the central Kasai province as the United Nations announces the discovery of 13 more mass graves in the same region, where tribal militias are battling currently security forces.
"We cannot get used to evil," Bishop Muyengo of Uvira in eastern DRC told French news site, La Croix.
Up to 400 people are estimated to have died in the region since fighting erupted last August after government forces killed tribal chief Jean Pierre Mpandi - also known as Kamwina Nsapu - who had launched an uprising against the government of President Joseph Kabila.
Both sides have been accused of committing human rights violations.
UN investigators announced on 3 April that they had found more mass graves in the central Kasai region.
“The number has risen from 10 to 23 mass graves in Kasai, Kasai-Central and Kasai-Oriental," senior UN human rights official Jose Maria Aranaz told Associate France Press.
Aranaz gave no estimate of the number of bodies buried in the graves, stating that this was "a matter for the Congolese authorities".
Late last month two UN experts who were abducted after going to investigate reports of abuses in the region were found dead in shallow graves.
A wave of attacks on Catholic churches and associated buildings have also been reported in the central Kasai province.
Militiamen attacked the town of Luebo on 31 March, ransacking and setting fire to the Bishop’s House and offices along with offices connected to Catholic schools and a home for novices. They are reported to have desecrated St John’s Cathedral before travelling to the village of Lunkelu where they attacked a seminary, Rev. Charles Mukubayi, head of Luebo diocesan, told Fides news.
“The priests had to flee to the forest for safety. They risk being killed if they come out, added Mukubayi.
Further attacks on Catholic property are reported across the country, including a raid on the parish of Paida in province in North Kivu, where three Catholic priests were tortured.
The incidents are intended to “punish” the Catholic Bishops' conference, which withdrew from its role as mediator in peace talks between the government and opposition on 28 March after the implementation of a deal that would ensure elections are held this year stalled, a local NGO has said.
CEPADHO, an NGO based in North Kivu have stressed that the current political impasse is not the bishops and the Catholic Church’s fault, but that “the Congolese political class that is blocking the implementation of the December 31 agreement."
Pope Francis has denounced the ongoing violence in the DRC.
"News is still coming of bloody armed clashes in the Kasai provinces of the DRC, fighting which has led to human casualties and displaced persons and is also affecting the people and property of the Church," the Holy Father said in remarks to pilgrims and tourists that followed the traditional Sunday Angelus prayer.
"I urge all to pray for peace so that the hearts of the perpetrators of these crimes will not remain slaves to hatred and violence," he added.
Picture: Human skulls suspected to belong to victims of a recent fight between the government army and Kamuina Nsapu militia are seen March 12 on the roadside near Kananga.
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