Congolese clerics have met with Kenyan President William Ruto in their quest for a peaceful solution to the war in the eastern part of their country, where M23 rebels continue to seize territory.
Clerics from the Catholic and Protestant churches in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have launched a process of dialogue. Ruto is the third East African leader to host the group, after Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Felix Tshisekedi of the DRC. They also met with the leadership of the alliance of rebels known as AFC, the French acronym for Congo River Alliance, the political wing of the M23, and opposition figures such as Martin Fayulu, Matata Ponyo and Delly Sesanga in Kinshasa.
But it is a controversial bid. The DRC leader had indicated that he was not opposed to the search for peace, but he also said he would not hold talks with the M23, a movement declared a terrorist group in Kinshasa.
But dialogue could halt the M23's advance on Kinshasa. On Monday, the M23 called for dialogue, shortly after announcing that they had taken over parts of Bukavu, in South Kivu province.
The clerics' aim is to "strengthen the unity" of Congolese society and the political class in order to create "national cohesion" and a "social pact for peace".
President Ruto chairs the summit of the East African Community, which includes both the DRC and Rwanda, the protagonists of the recent war in eastern Congo. But Tshisekedi skipped a recent summit convened by Ruto in a show of no confidence in the regional bloc.
Monsignor Donatien Nshole, secretary-general of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo, the highest organ of the Catholic Church in the DRC, said this must be the year of peace.
“Peace is the priority. President Tshisekedi welcomed this initiative. He said it was a commendable initiative," he said.
For the Catholic Church, "the solution to the current crisis is not military".
“"Listening to them (leaders), we understood that there are many things that can be resolved if the Congolese sit down around a table," Monsignor Nshole said.
Although this is a step towards talks, Mr Nshole has avoided the word dialogue.
"We avoid the term dialogue, which is polluted in the context of our country. We say it's with a view to a forum for national consensus. When we say consensus, all parties must be involved. It's a pastoral approach that excludes no-one.”
In Kinshasa, the priests' initiative has sparked controversy, with activists claiming to belong to the ruling UDPS party threatening to vandalise Catholic churches in Kinshasa on February 16. The governor of Kinshasa, Daniel Bumba, and the Minister of the Interior, Jacquemain Shabani, deployed police and army officers to secure the places of worship.
The priests’ visit to the AFC/M23 leaders has outraged some Congolese.
The meeting with Corneille Nangaa, the AFC president, took place in Goma, where fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 rebels at the end of January left around 3,000 people dead.
Three days after the Goma meeting, the rebels captured the town of Bukavu in South Kivu. The Red Cross said it recovered 26 bodies in Bukavu on Monday.
President Félix Tshisekedi's UDPS party accused the clerics of colluding with "the enemy".
Peter Kazadi, a close ally of the Congolese president and a senior UDPS official, claims that the Catholic Church has been conspiring with "the enemy".
“We have audible proof," said this former Minister of Interior and Security.
The UDPS accuses religious leaders of "spitting on the memory of all those Congolese victims of the barbarity of the M23...by seditiously trying to bring the M23/AFC to the negotiating table". The UDPS "rejects outright any attempt to organise political negotiations outside the Luanda and Nairobi processes."
Some members of civil society have also accused the Catholic priests of “treason”.
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