Update: July 6, 2009

A pastor's family stands in front of their burnt out home

Food and washbasins that were distributed to IDPs

Bruce and Anita Paden, WorldVenture missionaries in DR Congo

Since April 23 of this year, these funds have helped in the following way:

1. Food and household items to help 400 families from our churches who fled fighting in their areas.
2. Help to churches recovering from conflict, (rebuilding, repairing).
3. Medical help to individuals, (IDPs), and to church medical center in areas that serve IDPs.
4. Help to a pastor and his family whose home was burned down.

"[N]eeds vary from place to place and from time to time. At Rubaya, the place where we helped IDPs from our church association the last time that I sent a report to you, we helped the people there with blankets and food items.  This time, however, there was some NGO that had already distributed blankets to the people there, so that wasn't a need.  Instead of blankets, we gave them washbasins which they did need."

Kinshasa/Geneva (ICRC) - Fresh outbreaks of armed hostilities in many areas of North and South Kivu are putting additional pressure on entire communities already living in an alarming state of vulnerability.

Many have been forced to flee the all-pervasive violence and people in affected regions are unable to lead anything remotely resembling a normal life. Though due to harvest their crops any time now, they are often unable to get to their land because of armed groups in the vicinity.

Update: May 11, 2009

Report from Bruce and Anita Paden, DR Congo

“We would like to ask for special prayer for Goma and the surrounding area at this time. In addition to everything else they have suffered, it appears that two nearby volcanoes are threatening to erupt. This situation poses a real danger to the people of this area.”

As for the ongoing relief work
Church members from our churches in Rubaya and our churches in other villages have taken in the IDPs putting a heavy burden on everyone. We travelled to Rubaya with sacks of beans and corn flower, blankets and salt, (two truck loads), to help 400 families, (a conservative estimate would be 2,000 individuals), who had fled from insecure areas. In dividing this material, they estimated the numbers of IDPs staying with members of six different churches that belong to the CEBCE association of churches and then they divided all this material accordingly. The total cost of this undertaking came to $14,220.

Thank you to those who have continued to donate to the Congo War Refugee Relief #6440-975. We hope and pray to raise $9,200 to reach out goal of $50,000.

Scientist says volcanic eruption in Congo imminent

KINSHASA, Congo—Scientists found evidence of intense volcanic activity—including tremors, pools of lava and plumes of smoke—at two volcanoes near a major city in eastern Congo, and said some residents had fled for fear of an eruption.

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Update: April 29, 2009

Glenn Kendall, WorldVenture, Africa Director

The situation in North Kivu District of DR Congo is again deteriorating rapidly in an area northwest of the provincial capital, Goma. It is reported that there are 100,000 newly displaced people.

There is no greater concentration of Christ followers who have come to faith through WorldVenture-related ministry anywhere in the world than in this area. Many believers related to WorldVenture are again fleeing for their lives.

The situation even recently was much improved since late last year. Recently Hutu extremists have brought death and destruction some distance from Goma where WorldVenture missionaries Bruce and Anita Paden and David Grudda are currently serving.

In April Bruce Paden together with related Congolese leadership delivered enough food to help 400 families northwest of Goma.

More Information:

VOA NEWS Reports: Return of Hutu Militias Sparks 100,000 New Displacements in Eastern Congo

April 27, 2009

A resumption of fighting in lands in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo previously claimed by rebel Hutu militias has added more than 100,000 newly displaced people to Congo's swollen itinerant rolls in the past two months.

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Merlin reaches communities cut off by violence in DRC

April 25, 2009

Merlin's medical teams are delivering essential drugs to clinics cut off by recent violence in North Kivu in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. In some cases this is the first humanitarian aid they have received in months.

The humanitarian situation has sharply deteriorated in North Kivu following renewed fighting between rebel and army forces. In south Lubero, a remote area in the centre of North Kivu, at least 40,000 people have fled their homes in recent weeks to escape pillaging and violence by armed groups. Many had only arrived a few weeks earlier after fleeing fighting in neighbouring Walikale territory.

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Listen to the Missions of the Frontline Special Report: War DR Congo