ICC Note: Another priest has been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fr. Etienne Sengiyumva was killed on 8 April in North Kivu. He is the third priest killed in this region in recent years.

04/12/2018 Nigeria (World Watch Monitor) – Gunmen have killed another Catholic priest in DRC’s eastern province of North Kivu.

Fr. Etienne Sengiyumva, 38, was killed on 8 April.

“An assailant entered the house where he was having dinner, aimed his gun at the priest and killed him,” said Fr Emmanuel Kapitual, a curate in the parish where Fr. Sengiyumva was shot.

According to La Croix International, Fr. Sengiyumva was killed by Mai-Mai Nyatura militia, a group created to protect ethnic Hutus who settled in North Kivu from neighbouring Rwanda. However, the Catholic Bishop of Goma, Theophile Kaboy Ruboneka, said in a statement reported by Agenzia Fides that “it is difficult to say who was responsible for this terrible act”.  “At least 15” armed groups are operating in the area, he said.

“Fr. Sengiyumva is the third priest killed in the area,” the bishop said, and described North Kivu as being “in total chaos”.

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