YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – In a grim reminder about the pervasive inequalities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Félicien Mwanama of Luisa Diocese has decried the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

Mwanama, president of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of the Congo, was speaking at the close of the first Justice and Peace Week that ended September 21.

According to the World Bank, 73.5 percent of the DR Congo’s 100 million inhabitants lived on less than $2.15 a day in 2024.

The bishop accused the political class of illicitly enriching themselves while the poor get even poorer, creating the very ingredients that have sustained the Congo’s decades of war and bloodshed.

“We are witnessing the extreme impoverishment of large sections of the Congolese population, but at the same time as this growing impoverishment, we are seeing the unprecedented enrichment of a minority,” he said.

He blasted the Congolese government for failing to do its duty by the people in terms of ensuring the fair and equitable distribution of its natural resources. But the enhancement of justice in society, according to the cleric, is the collective responsibility of all.

“It is up to those with governmental responsibilities to work toward the creation of a nation where men and women live in harmony and peace. However, in the context of our country, where this justice is recognized as being seriously flawed, an effective solution requires the commitment of all political actors, both in the majority and in the opposition, as well as civil society leaders, religious denominations, and the entire Congolese population to establish mechanisms for reporting and condemning cases of injustice,” Mwanama said.

The bishop said the Church in particular ought to take a more active role in fostering justice among people, noting that in addition to the Gospel, the Catholic Church “encourages dialogue between individuals, groups, and peoples so that justice is upheld and unity preserved.”

He said the people suffer “when corruption infiltrates the administration of justice.”

Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa added his voice o the call for justice in society, condemning what he called “the logic of predation and privilege,” and asserted that those who hold power “must be guided by the light.”

The Church leaders argued that the pervasive sense of injustice in the DRC has also bred conflict that has left the country scared.

A country at war

Conflict has wracked the African country for well over three decades now, particularly in the east, where over 120 armed groups, according to Amnesty International, are fighting to control the vast reserves of gold, tin ,coltan and tungsten. The country’s mineral wealth is estimated at $24 trillion.

The M23 rebel group – which happens to be the most lethal of the groups – is supported by Rwanda. It was formed in 2012 by Tutsis, to respond to the threat posed by the FDLR – a Hutu militia that fled to the Congo in the wake of the 1994 Rwanda genocide that resulted in the deaths of about 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been accused of supporting the M23 rebels for fear that the Hutu rebels could regroup and strike back at Kigali. But the predation of the Congo’s minerals has also been advanced as one of the reasons the war persists.

On January 27, M23 captured the town of Goma, marking the biggest escalation of the conflict since 2012. At least 2,700 people died in Goma, according to the United Nations.

Efforts at resolving the conflict

Cease fires have been negotiated and broken. On June 27, the United States brokered a peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda aimed at resolving the conflict. U.S. President Donald Trump was quick to take a victory lap, claiming that he had “stopped “the war.

But he hadn’t. The main actors in the conflict-namely the M23 and the ADF were not invited, and the rebel groups promptly dismissed the deal.

President Felix Tshisekedi has admitted its failure, telling journalists on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, that the US-brokered deal has not calmed fighting in eastern DRC. He also explained that the Congo will not ‘auction its minerals,”-an apparent swipe at US President Donald Trump who says he wants to foster peace in the DRC but insists the US must be allowed to exploit the country’s critical minerals.

Father Joen Viljoen, the Director of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute of the South Africa Bishops’ Conference, has questioned Tshisekedi’s sincerity about not auctioning the country’s minerals.

“They have been auctioning off and selling the country’s mineral resources to the highest bidder for decades,” he told Crux.

He further criticized the  U.S.-brokered peace deal, telling Crux that Trump’s transactional approach to the resolution of the conflict could produce the same factors that led to the conflict in the first place-namely, the extraction of the country’s minerals for the benefit of western companies with no tangible profits for the Congolese people.

“If they had to implement a U.S.-brokered peace deal on condition that U.S. companies begin to extract the Congo’s resources, that type of a deal is always bad,” Viljoen said.

“Whether it’s the U.S. or whether it’s Russia or China, the host country always ends up on the losing end,” added.

“In many African countries, you’ll hear people say that when the Chinese come in, at least they build roads and they build airports and infrastructure. But when the Americans or the French come in, they just export and they are gone. So, yeah, it’s a worrying situation,” Viljoen said.

France to host emergency DR Congo Conference

Meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron of France told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that his country will in October host an emergency conference intended to address the dire humanitarian situation in the DRC.

“In the Great Lakes region, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the DRC must be respected,” he said.

“We must restore hope to the population of Kivu and to the hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced there,” Macron added.

Viljoen has little faith that France has the legitimacy to organize such a conference.

“Is France really a credible host country, given its long history in Francophone Africa, the priest asked.

He also said that if the main protagonists of the war-namely the M23 rebels and the Congolese Army-the AFD aren’t invited to the table, it would be a recipe for failure.

“That’s exactly the reason why the so-called peace deal that Trump brokered between Rwanda and DR Congo failed, because the people who are actually committing the violence on the ground are these rebel movements like M23 and AFD. And, you know, unless France actually bites the bullet and invites them to the conference, nothing will happen,” Viljoen told Crux.