In the Horror of War, the Hope of the Church

Africa Situation in action

In the Horror of War,
the Hope of the Church
Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Nigeria, Sierra Leone. A journey in the Africa of genocide, of martyrs and saints, the Church, a presence that rebuilds humanity in the midst of barbarity

by Giancarlo Giojelli

Eastern Congo, Northern Uganda, Darfur in Sudan. These are the recent tiles in the gigantic, horrible mosaic of massacres, refugees, child soldiers and terrible sicknesses. But in this mosaic there are incredible stories of life and joy, happy stories of hope. Here in Africa, everything seems to be extreme, barbarism as well as holiness. Everything seems exaggerated, pain as well as joy.

Congo is the theater of the most recent war. As we are writing, the last reports arriving from Bukavu, a town in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, speak of a situation that is “very serious: there is no more food; everything has been looted and children, old people, and sick are threatened with death by starvation.” And yet in this zone, isolated in the forest, far from any line of communication, AVSI has set up eight fields for cultivation, sending, via dangerous air links, tons of seeds and tools for the benefit of over 300 families. But this is not enough. Many of the soldiers are between the ages of 10 and 13, so what is needed is education so as not to leave the children prey to armed bands. The AVSI project includes 25 schools, 240 teachers, and 5,000 students.

The most recent massacre is happening in Sudan, in the western area of Darfur. A United Nations report says, “The horrors committed by the pro-government Arabs in Darfur recall the genocide committed in Rwanda 10 years ago.”
It’s more than a conflict, it’s an organized attempt to wipe out a population. It is the most tragic humanitarian crisis in the world. The Arab Islamic government of the North wants to control the South, which is Christian and animist, and impose the sharia, the Koranic law. For over a year, the war was “limited” to the oil-rich zones of the Southwest, inhabited by Christians, who were being forced to leave so as to leave the regime free to exploit the precious resources. Now it has moved to the West, and this time the victims of the massacres by the pro-government militias are Muslim tribes.
Up to now there have been over 3,000 killed, and a million refugees (150,000 of them escaped to Chad). The Sudanese Church is in the front line in denouncing the massacres and in helping the population. As Bishop Cesare Mazzolari of Rumbek tells us, “In a territory three times the size of Italy, the only health centers and schools are those of the Church. There are devastating sicknesses and very few doctors, three of whom are permanent and twenty or so international volunteers. We have hundreds of thousands of orphans, six million refugees. The people see in the Church their only help. But I am afraid that when peace comes, the Islamic government will try to stop our work. It will be a new challenge for the Church. They are irritated by our work and by our free education.”

Ten years after Rwanda: The world recalled the tenth anniversary of the fastest genocide in history, when 937,000 Tutsis–men, women and children–were massacred by the Hutus in less than 100 days. At one time, Rwanda was the Switzerland of Africa; now, it is a country where 70% of children suffer from malnutrition. And the hatred and the revenge are certainly not over.
Again, it is the Church who is giving voice to those who cannot make themselves heard, asking for help for the sick, supporting schools for those who cannot get education, the most precious good, and seeking a peace that is born from forgiveness and not from a cease-fire supervised by arms.

The latest horror has the face of Ugandan children.
Perhaps the most ignored of the many forgotten wars in Africa is the war unleashed 18 years ago in Northern Uganda by The Lord’s Resistance Army, led by “holy men” who claim to speak with the spirits. These are the ones who abduct children (more than 8,000 last year) who are then transformed into warriors themselves who, at night, attack refugee camps, villages, and missions, raiding for children, foodstuffs, means of transport, and especially for girls who become sex-slaves and “wives” for the leaders.
As the shadows lengthen and night approaches, the great procession begins across the paths of red earth that crisscross Northern Uganda. Thousands and thousands of children move toward the mission hospitals and the schools where they will spend the night. They call them “baby commuters.”
One child tells us, “The rebels come to the village, take away the children, force them to kill and to become soldiers. In the evening, we come to where the rebels don’t dare to reach. In the morning, we go to school, then to our village. In the evening, before nightfall, we come back here to sleep.”
There are some children who have managed to escape from captivity, and they have terrible stories to tell, like Agnes, who is now studying law and is working for an AVSI project for the rehabilitation of child soldiers. “I know very well what they have been through, and the strength you need to begin again. But you need a great friendship to support you, every day, in the struggle.”
The local Church, the humanitarian organizations, like AVSI, and the missionaries, like the Combonis, are their great hope. There, in the North, they support hospitals, schools, the Meeting Point help center, treatment, and support groups for AIDS patients and victims of mine attacks; trade schools which give the children a chance to learn a job so as to support their families, often decimated by sickness; re-education centers for former child soldiers who run away; a reform school in Kampala for street children; and work cooperatives in the slums of the capital, where women suffering from AIDS spend their days breaking rocks to earn a little money to pay the rent for the shed they live in. The long-distance adoptions are a great resource: $40 a month and a child can grow, go to school, get health care, and live.

Nigeria’s problem is fundamentalism. Nigeria is a confederation of states; 45% of the population is Christian, 17 million are Catholics, but in 12 northern states the sharia (Koranic law) has been imposed, and whoever disobeys Islamic precepts risks being put to death. Two years ago, the Miss Universe contest provoked a wave of violence against Christians, resulting in 200 killed and 30,000 people forced to flee from their villages. All this despite the fact that the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. The bishops, who support the freedom of all religious confessions, appealed to this, against the injustices and the discrimination of the power lobbies that use the cover of religion to keep a hold on their privileges. Thus the bishops and the Christians are seen by the populace as the defenders of everyone’s civil and democratic rights. “It’s clear that the privileged groups feel threatened by those who want more justice, in the first place the Christians,” said Bishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja.

In Sierra Leone, the war is over, but people are living on the streets. Fr Bepi Berton, who cares for the boy soldiers and the street children, recounts, “After the civil war, Sierra Leone is searching for a difficult and troubled stability. There are eleven thousand United Nations troops taking care of security, but the hatred and rancor are still simmering below an apparently calm surface. The child soldiers have come back to civilian life, but now they are facing the problem of re-insertion. In our center, we care for about 450 children. Many of them are street children, and the refugees who left their villages during the civil war increase the problem. The situation is a difficult one, even for the Church, which has to rebuild from nothing all the structures destroyed during the war. Social work is tiring, slow, and difficult. The hardest hit are the girls on the street, at the age of 14, you can imagine…”

The Ivory Coast, too, is looking for the way toward a true peace. Fr Paolo Santagostini tells us, “Rebels and government are going on with their discussions, but we seem to be far from a solution. The country is divided between North and South. Security is guaranteed by an international force led by the French. The only presence is the Church, which invites people to a journey of reconciliation, starting from forgiveness and supporting social services, schools, and hospitals, and caring for refugees. This presence is recognized and loved by the population.”

Horror is not the last word. You can ignore it, you can just talk about it, or you can build something inside that horror and that pain. Our Africa has the breath of a Church that has chosen, as Daniel Comboni did, to offer companionship to the individual person, to every single person, and with him build a civilization, there, in amongst the barbarity. There is the Africa of death and of genocides and, not separated but in the same history and in the same day-to-day life, the Africa of the martyrs and saints.