‘We feel abandoned,’ priest says of Congolese Catholics under M23 rule

May 21, 2026

A year after the capture of Bukavu--a city of 1.1 million in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—by the Rwanda-backed M23 movement, the archdiocesan vicar general described the plight of the Church there.

““We don’t feel isolated, we feel abandoned,” Father Floribert Bashimbe said in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need. “The people are suffering because they can no longer extract minerals, and rural activities have been halted because of insecurity.”

Father Bashimbe added, “Until now they have respected our infrastructure; they have not touched our vehicles, and when we have been faced with arbitrary arrests of our faithful, the Church intervenes and we find a solution.”

 

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Further information:

• DRC: When the people hear the church bells, they know there is life in the village (Aid to the Church in Need, 5/20/26)