Only a month into the new year, United Nations News reported that The UN human rights office had warned against potential crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo following a spike in attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces armed group.
This became more than a headline when, just shy of two weeks later, World Challenge received a message from their partner in the Congo. It read, “Yesterday, 13 persons killed by ADF in Ndalya village during the Sunday services. Killed in their church.”
The message came with heart-wrenching pictures of the church members who lost their lives, including a small child and a young pregnant lady.
The tragic event is merely one in a long line that people in the Congo have faced over the years. Thousands have lost their homes thanks to ADF violence. These refugees within their own homeland are called “internally displaced people” or IDPs. One such man had to flee his home thanks to ADF rebel attacks like the one that senselessly took the lives of innocent churchgoers.
World Challenge partners are helping best they can by teaching churches and communities how to use local resources to find solutions to their own problems, such as food production and construction.
It doesn’t eliminate the threat around them, but they are finding purpose and hope in their work.