The abduction of Jean Guth, a French Catholic priest and missionary some four weeks ago by "Ninja" rebel fighters has marked a new stage in the recent clashes which have erupted between rebels and government troops in the Pool region of Congo near Brazzaville.
"Ninja" is the name of a group of militiamen who oppose President Denis Sassou Nguesso and who refused to sign a peace agreement in 1999 ending the country's civil war. In the Pool region, the rebels are led by the Rev Frederic Bintsangu.
Guth was abducted after being wounded in a rebel attack on the community of Mayama, where he is a parish priest, about 60 kilometres from Brazzaville.
He has lived in the Congo for about 30 years, and is one of the rare expatriate missionaries to have returned to the diocese of Kinkala - the capital of the Pool region - since the 1998-99 civil war ended.
He is considered a hostage of Bintsangu, along with an army general who was captured under different circumstances.
President Nguesso has asked church leaders to join a negotiating team including members of the government and army to reach a settlement with the rebel fighters, according to several sources.
But the president has not ruled out a military offensive against the insurgents using the aid of 2000 Angolan soldiers who are on the spot.
Member churches of the Ecumenical Council of Christian Churches of Congo have declined the president's request, because in similar circumstances in November 1998 six church representatives were murdered while attempting to negotiate between the government and the rebels at the request of the president. The killings have never been explained.
In a meeting on April 16 with Nguesso, Catholic bishops demanded "an end to violence in Pool, compensation for the families of the six church leaders assassinated in 1998 and the involvement of United Nations organisations in the peace negotiations".
Meanwhile, people from Pool have been fleeing combat zones and taking refuge in the Catholic and Protestant churches of Kinkala, the regional capital, where they have been receiving humanitarian aid.
"The humanitarian situation is difficult and urgent," said Catholic Bishop Louis Portella Mbuyu of Kinkala, who added that "priests and nuns of the diocese have fled with the people". SOURCE: Ecumenical News International