Survivors of conflict to meet Pope Francis in Congo

GOMA, Congo — It took years for Marie Louise Wambale to reestablish her life after fighting between the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army forced her to flee with almost nothing more than a decade ago.

Like most Catholics in eastern Congo, she hoped that Pope Francis could bring a message of hope at a time when the M23 rebels are posing their greatest threat here since 2012.

“Many people were disappointed because they wanted to welcome him to our home, for him to come here and live our suffering, to feel it with his own eyes,” she said. “We wanted him to live it because there are many people who have fled the war. There are pregnant mothers who gave birth in the camps in very bad conditions — many women and children are suffering.”

Now Wambale has been tasked with taking this message to Kinshasa, where she will be among the Congolese faithful chosen to personally meet Francis.

His long-awaited visit to Congo and South Sudan this week comes after he postponed an earlier trip late last year that originally had included a stop in the volatile east. But insecurity has soared in the months since, so the pope is limiting his visit to Congo’s capital, Kinshasa.

An estimated 2 million Congolese are expected at the Mass at Kinshasa airport on Feb. 1, which the Vatican’s ambassador to Congo,

Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, said would make it the largest crowd event in the country’s recent history.

Fighting in eastern Congo, which has more than 120 armed groups, has simmered for years but spiked in late 2021 with the resurgence of the M23 group, which had been largely dormant for nearly a decade. The rebels have captured swaths of land and are accused by the United Nations and rights groups of committing atrocities against civilians.

Eastern Congo is also increasingly grappling with violence linked to Islamic militants.

In South Sudan, where Francis will travel after Congo, civil war has prevented a papal visit since 2017. Despite a fragile peace agreement signed more than four years ago to end half a decade of fighting that killed nearly 400,000 people, the security situation is deteriorating.

Throughout decades of war, the church has played a pivotal role in mitigating conflict in both countries.