As Pope Francis begins his visit to DRC, Clodagh Gallagher takes the opportunity to detail the persecution of Christians there.

By Clodagh Gallagher

In both the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan, countries Pope Francis is due to visit from 31 January to 5 February 2023 as part of an apostolic visit to promote peace in the region, and to share in the sorrow and suffering of the Congolese and South Sudanese peoples, both of whom have been violently persecuted by Islamists for decades.

As part of their detailed report, Open Doors have shared that in conflict regions, violent attacks from armed militia groups have left entire villages empty, as people flee to avoid being murdered because of their Christian faith.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a majority Christian country; 95.1% of the population of 94,676,000 profess faith in Jesus Christ, and the majority of that percentage are Catholic. On 31 January 2023, Pope Francis will travel to meet with Catholics in the DRC. One of the groups he will meet with are victims and survivors of massacres from the east of the country, where the persecution is most intense.

Open Doors’ World Watch List has found that the DRC is not fulfilling its international obligations by regularly violating or failing to protect the following rights of Christians:

• Christian women run the risk of being abducted, raped, and forcibly married to Muslim men. (ICCPR Art. 23; CEDAW Art. 16 and ICESCR Art. 10)

• Perpetrators of violence against Christians are most often left unpunished. (ICCPR Art. 2)

• Many Christian children are forced to learn Islamic scriptures. (ICCPR Art. 18 and CRC Art. 14)

• Christians are killed because of their faith by members of Islamist organisations (ICCPR Art. 6.1)

These confirmed infractions of human rights are in contravention of international treaties of which the Democratic Republic is a signatory, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, among others.

In addition, through our work in the DRC, Aid to the Church In Need knows how Catholics there are also regularly denied access to their places of worship and to catechetical materials. Congolese Catholic women are often denied custody of their own children, forced to divorce Christian men and/or marry Muslim men, abducted, raped, trafficked, physically abused, and murdered.

Congolese Catholic men are routinely recipients of economic harassment in the workplace, and regularly denied the opportunity to access work. They are also forcibly conscribed into the military against their conscience, denied custody of their own children, forced to divorce their Christian wives, trafficked, physically abused, and murdered.

Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List details that “Christians living in areas where Islamic militia operate are under a threat of abduction. The ADF (Allied Democratic Forces – an Islamist group) for example kidnaps women, rapes them, and forces them to marry soldiers within their ranks. Many Christian women who face this are reportedly kept as a kind of 'trophy'. Christian women – particularly converts – may be forcibly married, forcibly impregnated or forcibly divorced. These forced marriages are often early marriages, as sources report that elderly Muslim men often prefer young Christian girls.”

Child marriage rates are high in the DRC, with some 37% of female children being “married” before they turn 18. Abductions and rape are common, and occur at the hands of Islamists – most often in the northeastern regions – causing extreme psychological trauma for the victims, in addition to the physical, emotional, and spiritual toll. Islamists seek the Islamisation of the majority Christian DRC through subjecting Catholic women to lives of sexual slavery.

Pope Francis will meet with some of these victims and survivors. To a people already being crucified on the Cross with Jesus, he hopes to bring the hope of peace - and the encouragement that “all is reconciled in Jesus Christ”. For the Congolese people, this is an opportunity to be seen and heard in their deep ongoing suffering, and not just by the world but by a loving father, whose love acts as a signpost to the eternal and all-consuming love of God the Father Himself.