Kinshasa : alongside the displaced families of the Bateke Plateau
The war was close to our home…
The community of Mpasa/Kinshasa would like to share with you through this channel on what we are currently experiencing with families, people in rural areas and localities, farmers, young people and children ,where our fields are located
A war that extends to the gates of Kinshasa
In addition to the war in eastern Congo, two years ago an ethnic war broke out in the west between the Bayaka and Teke tribes in the Komuntu territory in Mayi Ndombe province, and this armed conflict spread to the province of Kinshasa (the capital), specifically to the commune of Maluku, where we have a field of crops (on the Bateke plateau).
This conflict has caused the displacement of several families. The Congolese state has deployed the military to ensure peace and calm. This means that these families have had to abandon their homes, fields, villages and land. They now find themselves in a precarious situation of extreme poverty: they lack drinking water, food and medicine, and women give birth at home without medical assistance. Children are unable to attend school. The number of cases of sexual violence is increasing on the Bateteke plateau, forcing parents to move their young daughters to the centre of Kinshasa, especially to the outskirts of our capital, in the commune of N’sele where our community is located
A fraternal presence among displaced families
This reality hinders our work in the fields, as we had cultivated four hectares of cassava and there is no possibility of continuing the harvest as planned… This invites us to rethink our mission; we are in communion with this suffering people. When we go to the fields, we visit them and they welcome us with joy. We are afraid to go there, but the presence of soldiers has reassured us. Our contribution is to pray for peace so that everyone can recover their homes, their land and their villages. We bring them hope and comfort. We offer them work so that they can finally find a way to continue their lives, because they do not know where to go, what to do, or what their future will be.
These words of Jesus Christ inspire and motivate us: « They are like sheep without a shepherd… feed them yourselves » Mk 6,30- 44
Vehicle access (motorcycles and large vehicles, etc.) is becoming difficult for transporting agricultural products from our fields.
The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Turin and us are the only ones offering work to these people. Being close to these families without hope is our sole concern and preoccupation.
We ask God to make us prudent and courageous, because the place is not safe, for our lives.
The presence of soldiers calms the population, but that is not enough because they are afraid and distrustful. We are limited; we cannot give work to all these people. We respond according to our capacity and our possibilities.
We continue to discern as a community to see what more we can do beyond what we are already doing in this situation, while remaining cautious and vigilant about what is happening.
We count on your support and prayers,
Mpasa community
We are small, but our mission is great