It’s a complex situation with a staggering number of players. More than 260 local or foreign-backed armed groups exist within the DRC according to a 2023 survey by the government. (Learn about key groups such as M23 here.) 

Photo of sewing class in East DRC courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship

Ben Samuelson serves with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in Ituri Province, the region directly north of the North Kivu hotbed. In the past two weeks, Ituri itself has had an upsurge of killings, abductions and burning of homes of civilians by non-state armed groups, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

In the midst of the chaos, Samuelson and the MAF team offer stability through a shuttle system between Ituri’s capital city of Bunia and three other major cities in East Congo.

“It doesn’t really matter what direction you take off and start flying (from Bunia). You are effectively always flying over militia activity at some point along that route,” Samuelson says.

MAF serves in three of the internally displaced persons camps in Bunia, offering local-led literacy classes, sewing classes, basic counseling services and more.

Nearly seven million people are displaced within Congo. Samuelson says one tiny hut in these camps might hold a large family.

Photo of Ben and Anna Samuelson with a literacy class graduate in East DRC courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship

“These people are scared for their lives, and they’re traumatized. It’s better to run away from everything they know, and come to one of these camps, than to have to live their life in fear every single day of this group that will come to kill them and to make their lives miserable,” he says.

Regarding extremist groups within the DRC, Samuelson calls their actions inhumane. He says it’s hard to talk about and is clearly the destructive work of Satan.

Pray for the MAF team as they serve in dangerous, pressured region. Learn more about MAF’s work in the DRC here.

Samuelson knows his team can’t solve the deep struggles facing the DRC. “But we have the chance to help some people, you know. We have the chance to serve the people that God has placed in front of us,” he says.

Join MAF in lifting up this complex crisis before the Lord, who knows and understands every detail. Pray for wisdom for leaders, long-term peace in the nation and the hope of the gospel to reach millions of suffering people.

Header photo courtesy of MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti via Wikimedia Commons. People from the Kibumba – Rutchuru axe who fled the combats between FARDC and advancing M23 rebels, set camp in Kanyaruchinya 4km north of Goma, the 1st of August 2012.

Last week, the armed group M23 blocked off main roads to the capital city of North Kivu province, cutting off its more than two million people from food sources. M23 is one of 120 armed groups present within the DRC.

Photo of North Kivu Province (bottom, dark red) and Ituri Province (top, bright red) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Ben and Anna Samuelson serve with Mission Aviation Fellowship in East Congo. Ben tells us there are a multitude of reasons for the decades of violence in the DRC.

“There are still those ethnic or tribal militias or attacks that will happen against a certain other tribe. There (are) outside influencers that are trying to get access to natural resources within Congo,” Ben says.

“Congo is one of the wealthiest nations in terms of natural resources in the country, even though the people don’t ever end up seeing that wealth. But outside influencers benefit from an unstable region. There (have been) many cases of inciting militias and such to keep the region unstable for their purposes.” 

Amid lack of government support, tribes and villages create their own militias for their own causes and defense, which adds to the chaos. “Some religious extremism as well has come up and been the cause of other militia and fighting that goes on in the area,” Ben says.

The recent concentration of fighting within North Kivu may be tied to its proximity to other countries that historically have influenced the DRC, says Ben.

He adds, “With a country with as poor of (an) infrastructure as Congo, it becomes very hard to have a lot of control in the east, when all the primary governance [Kinshasa] is just under one thousand miles away in the West.”

The DRC currently has over 6.3 million displaced persons according to UNHCR. Many hope and call on President Felix Tshisekedi, who began his second term in office in January, to dramatically improve national security.

(Photo of DRC courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

“Sometimes it feels really hopeless when we read the numbers of how many displaced and how many killed,” says Anna. “(Please pray) for the elected officials, that they would have wisdom, and that they will be honest.” 

Mission Aviation Fellowship operates in Bunia, the capital city of Ituri province, which lies directly north of North Kivu and also deals with militia activity. Pray for their protection and for stability in the region.

“[Pray for the team] to not get discouraged when we hear about all this terrible stuff, but to just see the opportunities that God has placed in front of us, that this is something, this is a person that we can make a difference in their life today,” Ben says.

Header image is courtesy of MONUSCO Photos/Wikimedia Commons.