In Bukavu, of the five Covid-19 cases diagnosed and isolated, two were reported negative and three cured. But the news coming from Kinshasa, the capital, is not so good. More than 300 people are infected with Covid-19 and are increasing every day. The population is more concerned with finding something to eat than with protection against the disease. And if something isn't done soon and quickly, one also fears a disaster in the overcrowded prisons.
While huge episodes of misappropriation emerge in the capital, the provinces of North and South Kivu are affected by other misfortunes, in addition to Covid-19.
The Ebola virus has resurfaced in Beni: there are 5 or 6 infected people.
Throughout the country's eastern region, armed groups continue their attacks. Since January, over 330 people in the Ituri Province have been subjected to serious human rights violations, including homicides and kidnappings. In Masisi, in North Kivu, at least 57 civilians were killed by armed groups in February alone.
In mid-April, moreover, the provinces of South Kivu, Maniema and Tanganyika were affected by torrential rains: 23 dead and fifty wounded only in Uvira, in South Kivu; but at least 10,000 families are victims of the overflow of the Congo River in the province of Maniema and in the city of Kindu; and about 3,000 houses were destroyed in the Tanganyika Province and in the Lualaba area.
Confinement, diseases, wars, natural disasters have reduced the production and circulation of agricultural and food products. For the poor, the risk of starvation is immense.
The Salesian community, for its part, lived Holy Week and the celebration of Easter in close intimacy. At the subsequent reopening, the Sons of Don Bosco worked to keep the kids busy, offering them, in compliance with safety standards, school tuition, recreational and sports activities, small house maintenance jobs.
As soon as the confinement is removed, the Salesians intend to visit the most vulnerable families and give them a little help, as well as helping the population affected by the Uvira flood.
To support them is also the message launched by the Pope on Sunday of Divine Mercy: “While we are looking forward to a slow and arduous recovery from the pandemic... the risk is that we may be struck by an even worse virus, that of selfish indifference. May we be profoundly shaken by what is happening all around us: the time has come to eliminate inequalities, to heal the injustice that is undermining the health of the entire human family!”
