DR Congo mystic sect seeks justice for 2023 massacre

By AFP

Families and loved ones of more than 50 people massacred by elite Democratic Republic of Congo troops a year ago gathered Friday to demand true justice.

Most of the victims were members of a mystic religious group, the Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith Towards the Nations, whose leader had called a protest to demand the departure of foreign NGOs and the UN force in the country from the restive North Kivu province.

Members of the elite Republican Guard stormed the temple of the movement in the North Kivu capital Goma on August 30 last year, killing at least 57 people, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch monitor.

The protest was banned by the mayor of Goma and the guards arrested the sect's leader Ephraim Bisimwa and shot at sect members after they had lynched a police officer.

Passers-by were also killed in the early morning raid, according to HRW.

In October, the commander of the unit at the time, Colonel Mike Mikombe, and three others were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Sect members gathered in the temple on Friday to demand justice.

Cigarettes, factory-made drinks and products made by Western methods are banned in the sect's temple.

Uwase Biganaba Alice, who lost her father in the massacre, said: "I was standing next to my father when he fell to the ground.

"We are seeking our rights and true justice".

Some sect members wore pendants shaped like the African continent with the colours of the Congolese flag.

The portraits of assassinated pan-Africanist leaders like Congolese premier Patrice Lumumba and Burkina Faso's ex-president Thomas Sankara -- revered by sect members -- hung on the walls.

"The scars will remain in our hearts until the state undoes the damage," said Bwinja Amani, who is the sect's interim leader.

Its leader Bisimwa is in jail.

"We have produced a report with 103 people killed," said sect member Nyakasane Mengabe Emmanuel.