Thousands of Catholics on Sunday, took to the streets in several cities across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to protest violence in eastern regions perpetrated by the M23 rebels in the eastern parts of the country.
The protesters which included priests, church leaders and their congregations, also accused the international community of hypocrisy over failure to hold Rwanda a accountable over their alleged role in the fighting.
Local media reports on Monday that the protest began after Sunday services with churchgoers in the capital Kinshasa and other major cities heeding a call from the Conference of Catholic Bishops to demonstrate against the the M23 rebel group.
The mass protests, the media said, were the most significant since an escalation in fighting in recent weeks between federal forces and the rebels which has killed over 10,000 people and displaced an estimated 390,000 people.
Demonstrators in Kinshasa sang and carried banners reading “No to Balkanisation, no to the hypocrisy of the international community. The DRC is not for sale,” while one of the organisers of the protests, Blaise Emmanuel, who is the vicar at St Elizabeth’s Parish in the capital, said
“We say no to war, no to a divided Congo,” while leading a procession in Montgafula, one of the poorest municipalities in Kinshasa.
Another priest, Father Theophile Landu, who also spoke with journalists, said:
“It is the small country, Rwanda, that is fighting us. And behind it are the United States and the European Union. We tell them that they must stop the hypocrisy.”
For years, Congolese have accused the West of failing to hold Rwanda to account for its alleged role in stoking insecurity in the east, and instead have been giving aid to Kigali.
One media report cited an instance where the European Parliament in late November, called on Rwanda not to support the M23 rebels.
“But last week, the same European Commission gave €20 million ($21m) to support Rwandan troops helping fight rebels in Mozambique,” it said.