(ANS – Bangui) – “For 7 months in the courtyard of the church of Saint John Bosco, in a very poor district of Bangui, a thousand people have been scarcely surviving. The Salesians are their shield, their salvation. Fr Agustín Cuevas, a Spanish religious almost 70 years of age has welcomed into his community all these people, displaced on account of the massacres in the Central African Republic. At certain times there were up to 22.000 people”. This is from an article published in the daily paper “El Confidential”, from which we are taking some passages.

The refugees are being protected by the Salesian community to which Fr Cuevas belongs. He arrived for the first time in the Central African Republic three years ago after having lived in other countries on the  continent. Working with him for those in need are Fr Jan Hübner, a Polish Salesian, Vice Rector of the community since 2010, and the Salesian Brother Eynem Maguergue from Ndajaména, Chad, Director of the Oratory and in charge of the School since 2011.

Most of the refugees are women and children who have escaped from the violence “blind and gratuitous” – in the words of Fr Cuevas – which broke out in the Central African capital, Bangui, last 5 December.

Without anyone to turn to, with an army on the loose and caught  in the cross fire, many people sought refuge in churches. At Galabadja, a district of Bangui, they knocked on the door of the Salesian community which for years had been struggling to provide a small oasis of service with a school and a dispensary, so useful in this forgotten district.

The displaced people still thronging the church yard are not the only ones who have been supported. At one stage there were over 22.000 crowding into the buildings and all the available space who were sleeping rough “on the benches and on the floor of the church” while outside the sound of gunshots, mortars and exploding shells was never-ending.

The complete article is available on the site of El Confidencial which also provides a panoramic view of the work being done by Salesian missionaries  in the Central African Republic and of various  elements of the conflict still in progress..

Published 27/06/2014