Congolese refugees stage demonstration in Rio to call for peace in Congo

The community of refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Rio de Janeiro has chosen Black Awareness Day, celebrated on November 20 in Brazil, to state their call for peace and democracy in their home country, which has been at war for 20 years.

About 100 people gathered on Rio's beachfront Atlântica avenue with posters calling for peace and democracy. They sang songs from the Congo and the national anthem, while some of them took the time to tell passers-by about the situation in Congo. Singing and dancing, the group marched to Fort Copacabana, where an ecumenical ceremony took place.

One of the refugees, Charly Kongo, who has been living in Brazil for eight years, said the purpose of the demonstration was to sensitize Brazilians to the situation in the African country. “We also wanted to take the opportunity today to show the Congolese people wants freedom, democracy, and peace in our country. We've fled war and all we ask for is peace and democracy. It's the absence of democracy and the war that make us flee to Brazil or other countries.”

Charly said an election that had been due to take place in December was cancelled by Congo's President Joseph Kabila, who has been in power for 15 years. “There won't be an election in December, that's for sure. Politicians are trying to make deals. But what the people really want is democracy and a change of power there.”

The refugees are asking the Brazilian government for more support as they try to flee the African country and settle in Brazil. Julia Salú has been in Brazil for two years. When she arrived, she was pregnant and had three children. Although she felt welcome in the country, she says the process could have been faster and more humane.

“I Congolese woman I hadn't met before put me up until I settled down. If the government had had a place for arriving Congolese refugees to stay, it would really have helped. As for the documents—they do provide them, but it takes a while.”

Invisible

According to the Ministry of Justice, the Congolese refugees are the fourth-largest refugee community in Brazil, with almost 1,000 people, behind Syrians, Angolans, and Colombians. Aryadne Bittencourt, a legal protection officer at Caritas's refugee program, said the demonstration on Sunday—the first held by the refugees—aimed to bring Brazilians closer to the reality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“The purpose of taking this movement to the beach was trying to bring a seemingly distant reality from the middle of Africa, where violence and death has been raging on for decades, closer to a reality here in Brazil. The Congolese diaspora has reached all parts of the world. The Congolese refugees make the fourth-largest national refugee population recognized in Brazil, and one of the main nationalities still arriving. Here in Rio, the strongest, densest refugee community is the people coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

In her view, the date chosen for the demonstration shows how the problems of African countries have become invisible in the society. “The refugees' indignation at the failure to cover Congolese refugees on the media, in studies, or in civil society is partly motivated by the place blacks have both in Brazil's society and the world. Currently, most of the world's concern about refugees is over Syrians. While we can't deny the situation in Syria is indeed a human tragedy, it has been going on for five years, whereas with Congolese people there have been more than 6 million deaths in the past 20 years and no one is talking about that. So staging this demonstration on November 20 enables us to show the link with the place of race in this humanitarian issue.”

Translated by Mayra Borges