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MCC with Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission and Mennonite Brethren Missions/Services also asked churches to set aside time on Dec. 1 to pray for people caught in the fighting in eastern Zaire, as well as for other Zairians. There are fears that the fighting in eastern Zaire may spread to other parts of Zaire, a country that is home to some 170,000 Mennonites.
Persons wishing to contribute blankets can deliver them to any MCC office by Dec. 25, along with $4 per blanket to pay for shipping costs. The blankets will go to Bukavu, Zaire, where churches will distribute them early next year. Reports indicate soldiers, many of whom serve unpaid, have looted the town, stealing anything they can sell.
MCC continues to invite contributions to its "Central Africa Healing Fund." The money will be used to transport warm clothing, which MCC has in stock, and for future responses. When the situation stabilizes, MCC will gear its aid to people overlooked by bigger agencies. The money will also go to MCC's ongoing peace and other work in Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire.
MCC is also helping send lentils and oil, valued at $4.5 million, to the Rwandan and Burundian refugees. The three-part shipment is set to arrive in eastern Zaire in December 1996 and in January and March 1997.
It is estimated that the number of displaced people in eastern Zaire has now surpassed 1994 totals. Then, as now, the threat of famine and disease looms large. Most of the displaced are cut off from aid as roads and airports are closed.
Terry Sawatsky, co-director of MCC's Africa programs, says the violence can be divided into two separate, though overlapping conflicts. One is a civil war between Zaire's military and Banyamulenge, Zairian Tutsi. The Banyamulenge have captured three major towns, including Bukavu.
The other conflict revolves around tension between Rwanda's Tutsi government and the defeated Rwandan Hutu government, which has its base in the refugee camps in eastern Zaire. "Since 1994 we have been told it is only a matter of time before either the former military would regroup and try to regain Rwanda, or Rwanda would find some way to attack the refugee camps," says Sawatsky.
Some observers speculate that the fact that the Banyamulenge are considered Tutsi provided a natural link to the Rwanda and Burundi governments, which are also controlled by Tutsi. The Banyamulenge needed help to fight the Zairian military and the Rwandan and Burundian governments needed a destabilized situation to attack the refugee camps.
"All of this adds up to a volatile mix that is creating untold human misery," says Sawatsky.
MCC release
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