Increasing violence and uncertainty marks the daily lives of the Congolese as armed rebel groups including March 23 movement (M23) and The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) remain active in the country.
Kizito Mayao is a Taylor MAHE (Masters in Higher Education) graduate who is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The violence has been taking place in the province he lives in. Those who are more financially stable have fled to safer areas, while others can only wait until M23 invades their cities.
“Those who do not have (financial) means, who do not have anywhere to go, we just stay and wait until they get here,” Mayao said. “And it will be just part of our life.”
M23 is an unofficial proxy militia for the Rwandan government, Ben Lawson, associate professor of physics who lived and worked in the Congo for five years, said. The group’s involvement in the Congo originates back in 2012, when they briefly seized Goma, a city in east DRC.
The rebel group has been taking over the Congolese government and installing their own administration, Mayao said. They are now just 40-50 miles from where he lives in Beni, DRC. Their goal is to seize the capital city, Kinshasa, and eventually take over the whole country, he said.
“We are not really calm and quiet to hear that they are coming,” Mayao said. “We are not good. We feel frustrated, humiliated and we feel a lot of worries.”
The M23 is an armed rebel group with political motives. They act by entering a city and then installing their own mayor, governor and police in an effort to overtake the current political structure, Mayao said. However, the ADF rebel group is less organized and does not have clear motives.
While both M23 and the ADF are dangerous, Lawson said, the obscurity of the ADF is what makes them uniquely dangerous.
“It’s never really clear what (the ADF) wants,” Lawson said. “It’s almost like they’re an armed group that sort of just exists for their continued existence. ‘What is ADF?’ is sort of an elusive idea. When you look a little bit into the history, one wonders, is it a group or is it a brand that different groups have sort of adopted?”
The ADF originated in the late 1900s, beginning as an Islamist group who opposed the Ugandan government, Lawson said. The Ugandan government eventually drove the ADF out, and the group has since operated out of the Congo. It has taken many different forms and aligned itself with various groups in the past.
At this time, the group affiliates with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), he said.
In contrast to the organized approach of M23, the ADF is known for its random attacks on vulnerable populations. These rebels enter villages, burn houses and massacre people for seemingly no reason, Mayao said.
“They take all the animals,” he said. “They slaughter people, even those who are not interested in politics, like all the people, like widows. All the people who do not know about politics. They don’t care about politics. So why are they killed? They don’t even hope to get access to a position in politics but are killed. Even children — children. They take a kid, they slaughter a kid and they burn someone. Someone who does not care about politics is killed for nothing. This is the problem of ADF.”
Mayao wants people to know that women and children are suffering the most.
The group’s recent attacks have targeted believers in North Kivu. ADF militants entered a church full of Christians who were praying on Feb. 13.
They slaughtered 70 Christians and left their corpses in the church, Mayao said.
Mayao works at the Universite Chretienne Bilingue du Congo (UCBC), a partner university to Taylor. As a Christian university in the province ADF is active in, there has been a sense of apprehension. Mayao serves as coordinator of the school’s crisis management team (CMT). When there is news of nearby danger, he calls his team to implement security measures.
When Lawson worked at UCBC, there was a time the ADF massacred people in rural areas close to the school. Students and staff had to leave campus and rent a space in town to conduct classes. The town is typically deemed safer than the rural areas since more battalions and security are in place, Lawson said.
Ed Meadors, a professor of biblical studies, met with leaders from UCBC in 2019 to help facilitate a partnership between UCBC and Taylor.
Taylor students taking the course Acts and the Early Church, taught by Meadors, recently participated in a Zoom call with Mayao and leaders from the Congo Initiative. The students heard more about the situation in the Congo and got to pray for the leaders during the call, Meadors said.
Mayao said the Zoom call with the Taylor students was very comforting. It assured the people living in the Congo that they are loved and supported. He asked the Taylor community and people in the States to continue to pray for Congo and remember the people there.
“This is a right time to pray for us, to support us in prayers,” Mayao said. “Lives are now broken. Souls are now broken. Future does not have hope. More and more people have lost family members. Tomorrow their futures are not as certain.”
Lawson said if anyone is wanting to learn more about the Congo and engage these topics, he would love to talk to them. He would be happy to connect Taylor students with people he knows in the Congo as well.
Despite being hard-pressed on every side, Mayao and the Congolese people continue to trust that God is able to change things.
“Whenever you are going through a hardship, it brings you closer to your God,” he said. “This is a good time for us, Congolese, to discover who God is. During the hard time that we are going through, it brings us to seek God.”
What have the Congolese discovered about God? That peace only comes from Him, Mayao said.
While the DRC is often defined by its turmoil, Lawson wants people to move away from seeing the Congo in this one-dimensional way.
People only ever hear about Congolese cities like Beni when killings take place, he said, and that becomes the only thing shaping the public’s idea of the Congo. While life in Beni is complicated, it is also beautiful, he said.
“It’s a place full of life, and it’s so colorful and loud,” Lawson said. “People love music, and they love dressing in bright colors. I just want people to be aware of the suffering. Pray for the people of Congo, but also don’t make Congo just that. I really hope people can realize their brothers and sisters in Christ are there — and they’re full of hope and full of life — and they do need our prayers, but they don’t need us to put them in a box.”
Suffering is only one part of the story, he said.
