Church Groups Respond as Congo Conflict Deepens

[joanne_h]

Posted: Sunday, 30 November 2008, 11:30 (EST)Font Scale:A A AChurch-related aid agencies are assisting civilians displaced by the eastern Congo conflict as the UN special envoy made another effort on Friday to arrange peace talks between Congo’s government and Tutsi rebels.Tearfund’s church partner agencies are delivering food, water, emergency medical supplies as well as providing shelter to some of the tens of thousands of families affected by the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.More than 250,000 people have been forced to flee their homes to escape the intensified fighting in recent weeks, adding to more than one million who have already been displaced by the conflict.Among those of particular concern are the some 300 displaced pregnant women and children in the rebel-held territory north of Goma. These vulnerable women and children had fled the violence with nothing with them except the clothes they were wearing, the aid group reports. Many of the women are said to be traumatised by the experience.HEAL Africa, a Tearfund partner, has given these pregnant women clothes and blankets, while HEAL Africa’s Choisir la Vie (Choose Life) programme has provided emergency food supplies to people at an internally displaced person (IDP) camp in Masisi, west of Goma.“Thousands of innocent people have been caught up in the conflict and are living in desperate conditions – they urgently need our help,” said Tearfund’s international director, Peter Grant.“Tearfund and its partner agencies are doing all we can to ease their plight and with your support, we will continue to do so in the weeks and months ahead."Likewise, Baptist World Aid, the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, has provided $30,000 for relief in Congo. Funds will be used to provide food, water and shelter for displaced persons.Robert Bruce Paden of the Evangelical Community of Baptist Churches of Eastern Congo (CEBCE) reported that the Baptist church community has been “devastated” by the war and he estimated that 80 per cent of the pastors and people in the churches have fled because of the fighting in the area.