14.12.10 Oxfam: THE PEOPLE OF NORTHERN DR CONGO ARE NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO CHRISTMAS
On Christmas Eve 2008 and over the following three weeks, 865 women, men
and children were savagely beaten to death and hundreds more abducted
by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in north-eastern DRC and southern
Sudan.
Last Christmas, between 14 and 17 December 2009, LRA commanders oversaw the killing of more than 300 people.
Abau Adua had to flee with nothing, not even spare clothes, along with the rest of his village of Magamba.
“That morning the village was very busy. Lots of people came from
other villages for the fish market… we were out on the river when the
LRA attacked. We heard the screams and the shouting… I saw 16 corpses,
beaten and stabbed to death. Two of my close family – my cousin and my
nephew – were among them”.
“Two days later, we had just finished burying the dead when the LRA
came back. They had moved on to other villages after ours and were now
returning to where they came from. So we fled down the river – 20 of us
packed into a small boat. The whole village emptied – everyone who was
not dead left as quick as they could.
You can help to protect people like Abau.
Take action now to help make families in the Congo, southern Sudan and Central African Republic safer this Christmas.
Join the petition and we will add your name to a giant Christmas card
which we’ll present to the UN Security Council, asking them to develop
and implement an action plan to keep people safe from the LRA at
Christmas and beyond.
OXFAM international