Catholic Priest Shot Dead As Citizens Battle To Remove President Who Has Ruled For 17 Years

A Catholic priest has been found dead in the Congo days after another priest was abducted.

He was murdered just days after celebrating a wedding

Father Etienne Sengiyumvam 28, was found ‘shot in the head’ hours after he had celebrated a wedding with his parishioners, the head of his diocese said.

‘Father Etienne Sengiyumva was killed Sunday by the Mai Mai Nyatura [militia] in Kyahemba where he had just celebrated a mass including a baptism and a wedding,’ Father Gonzague Nzabanita, head of the Goma diocese where the incident occurred, said according to AFP.

In January, protesters took to the streets of Kinshasa demanding that President Joseph Kabila step down. Police fired live ammunition and tear gas at demonstrators who marched after church services.

The Mai Mai Nyatura are an armed group operating in North Kivu, in eastern DR Congo.

The Congo has been torn apart by more than 20 years of war, exacerbated by ethnic conflicts and land disputes in a bid to control the country’s rich mineral reserves.

Last week kidnappers took Father Célestin Ngango, parish priest of Saint Paul of Karambi, and are demanding $500,000 for his release.

Three other priests, Assumptionist Fathers Jean-Pierre Ndulani, Edmond Kisughi and Anselme Wasukundi, were abduced on October 19, 2012, and two more, Jean-Pierre Akilimali and Charles Kipasa, on July 17, 2017. None of them has been heard from since.