Displaced Congo pastors receive aid

WASHINGTON — Displaced pastors of the Baptist Community in Central Africa (BCCA) have received help in war-torn Congo from Baptist World Aid (BWA), the relief and devlopment arm of the Baptist World Alliance.

Congo’s “foolish and absurd war,” as BCCA legal representative Mauka Mahte Bulalo described it in a letter to the BWA, has left a trail of death at the hands of rebels and militiamen since strife broke out anew in August 1998.

The Baptist Convention has lost or has been compelled to close 25 schools, 12 health centers and 50 congregations in North and South Kivu provinces  during this time, Bulalo reported.

Baptists have also lost two pastors and their families, more than 100 members have been killed and many women and girls have been raped, Bulalo said.