CONFRONTING 2022: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

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Like any other person or community, we face conflicts in our life. Conflicts are inevitable, either from within or without. There are two ways of dealing with conflicts: you either run away from them or face them. Any conflict offers challenges and opportunities, especially when you decide to face them. Conflicts are started by man, using ignorant and heartless people to accomplish his selfish and evil ambitions. Conflicts end with the intervention and hard commitment of the peace-making people. Conflicts cause enormous damages on the lives of people.

 The Eastern Congo and Congo in general has gone through a decade’s conflict that has seen loss of many lives, displacement of people, destruction of infrastructure, and environment damage. The national government and the international community seem to have exhausted their breath on these Congo conflicts. People appear to have lost hope of a possible lasting peace. 

In Ituri, the region where the Diocese is located, community and foreign armed groups have made life unbearable. Without losing hope and giving up, attempts are now being made to bring people around the table and find any small windows that could lead to peace. That is how I found myself caught up in the process, allowed to bring in my contribution as a religious leader. That task is not so easy, it demands sacrifice and taking risk.

• Our first step is to mobilize any support to the victims, locally and from friends abroad. It was only an act of love and sympathy. The region has more than three million internally displaced people, our action is a drop in the ocean. What people long for is peace, when they can take care of themselves. 

• The second step is to bring pastoral, spiritual and psychological care by making visits. Some of the areas are very dangerous, hard to access without any protection. In the process we meet both the victims and perpetrators. The great message is about peace, needed by both victims and perpetrators. The ordinary man on both sides has no control of what is going on, in both sides 

• The third step is to get involved with other stakeholders in the search for lasting peace in Ituri, eastern Congo and Congo in general. It is not an easy task, it requires commitment, sacrifice and taking risk. 

I humbly request you to support the Diocese of Boga and the Bishop as we engage in this process with a neutral and independent approach and join with community partners. If we totally depend on government and international programs, there is possibility of being victims of manipulation and traffic of influence. To bring in our local initiation, combine with others will pave way to true dialogue on the road to lasting peace. 

That support will help us to put up a Diocesan task force, composed of some influential and peace-loving members of the Church from various tribal communities. 

That task force must achieve the following.

1. Talk to the leaders of armed groups, some of them are nominal Christians of our Church.
2. Talk to the community opinion leaders, many of them are known to us and casual discussions have been going on with them.
3. Involve the government leaders, with whom we are partners in their various programs to handle the crisis, like the P-DDRCS of which I am the member of the Provincial task force. 

As Jesus said in John 14:27, the peace he gives is special, different from the one the worlds can give. As the world is searching for peace in Ituri, Eastern Congo we should add in the taste of our Lord’s peace. Sometimes I hear people blame the Church for not doing enough in peace building!

                                                                                Rt. Rev. BAHEMUKA MUGENYI William

                                                                                                           The Bishop of Boga Diocese

                                                                   The Province of the Anglican Church of Congo

                                                                                                                     Tel: +243990668639