Pope, UN Urge Intervention For Eastern Congo Christians
Pope Francis and the United Nations (UN) have called for action after 36 Christians were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the Catholic Herald.
In one of the deadliest attacks since November 2014, Christians in the North Kivu region were tied up and hacked to death by a jihadist group known as The Islamist Allied Democratic Forces-National Association for the Liberation of Uganda.
World Watch Monitor reports that the group has been targeting Christians for years since trying to overthrow Ugandan government.
The UN's high commissioner on human rights says there has been 645 deaths since 2014 and Christians face being beat, raped, and kidnapped on a weekly basis.
"We do not understand why this is happening to us," one pastor told Open Doors International. "The rebels just take people into the bush to kill them or kidnap them. They attack one place for a while and cause people to run away. Then they strike the places people run to."
The UN is now urging the Congo to investigate the massacre, meanwhile, the Pope has condemned the country's silence.
"My thoughts go to the people of North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who have been recently hit with fresh massacres, which have for some time been perpetrated in shameful silence, without attracting even as much as our attention," he said. "Unfortunately, they are part of the too many innocent people who have no weight on world opinion."
