Fr Vincent Machozi

On 20 March 2016, a dozen of armed men wearing uniforms of the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo, disrupted a peacemaking retreat in the social center called “My beautiful village” in Vitungwe-Isale, Beni district of the North Kivu region.  These men murdered Father Vincent Machozi, an Assumptionist Catholic priest who led the fight against the extractive industries and in support of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to reports, onlookers said Vincent’s last words were: “Why are you killing me?”.

Born in 1965 in a family of seven children, orphan from his father aged 15, Vincent decided to study theology and to join the Assumptionist congregation. After studying theology in Angers, France, he became a priest in 1994, and was sent to Kinshasa, DRC, to teach religion. Afterwards, he was the head professor in Butembo, an area where Assumptionists are heavily implanted, and had then left the country to the United States after several death threats. He worked in Boston, Massachusetts, and launched the first French-speaking news portal on Eastern DRC called Beni Lubero (www.benilubero.com), a online platform documenting human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially against Vincent’s Nande people.

At the tenth anniversary of the website’s launch, Vincent was saying that “for the past ten years, we have been the memory and the thermometer of this province”, noting that Beni Lubero informed the population “on 1,155 martyr cases all around the DRC” and denounced “the current manoeuvers of the Rwandan occupation of the Kivu region and the balkanization going on in the country”.

On top of being priest and editor of Beni Lubero, Vincent Machozi was the chairperson of the organization Kyaghanda Yira, named after the main ethnicity in that part of the North Kivu region. This organization fights for the rights and land rights of the people. Since 2010, the Yira/Nande people are allegedly systematically chased and massacred by armed groups to exploit coltan resources. The organization called this massacre a “genocide of the Yira people”.

Over the years, Machozi has been involved in several protests against illegal trade of this mineral ore used in electronic devices. The so-called “war of coltan” in the mineral-rich eastern Congo, has left millions dead and more than a million women raped. Transnational corporations are able to exert extreme pressure on Congo’s weak government and economy. As a result, the country’s natural resources have become an important factor in increasing poverty and violence rather than wealth and development. According to his colleague from Boston University, Timothy Longman, “Vincent was trying to show the world who was killed and who was responsible. He wasn’t on any particular side.”

Vincent Machozi returned to the DRC in 2012, putting aside work on his PhD thesis exploring the role of the Catholic Church in transforming the conflict in his country in favor of human rights work. A few days before Vincent Machozi was killed, the priest posted an article implicating in the violence the DRC’s president from 2001, Joseph Kabila and Rwanda’s president since 2000, Paul Kagamé.

According to Rev. Emmanuel Kahindo, the Rome-based vicar general of the Assumptionist order and a fellow Congolese, Vincent Machozi knew the end was likely at hand, telling him in October 2015: “My days are numbered. I will be murdered, I feel it … but like Christ, for the sake of our people, I will not be silent. I will continue my fight to the end and continue to condemn all those who sow division and hatred between ethnic groups in the region to rule and continue to exploit the riches.”


Se quiser enviar uma recordação pessoal, favor nos enviar por e-mail: HRDMemorial@frontlinedefenders.org

Região:África

País:República Democrática do Congo

Departamento/Província/Estado:North Kivu

Gênero1:Masculino

Idade:51

Data da morte:23/03/2016

Ameaças Anteriores:Sim

Tipo de trabalho:Clérigo

Organização:Beni Lubero Online

Setor ou Tipo de Direitos que o/a DDH trabalhava:Direitos Civis e Políticos, Direitos ESC

Detalhes do Setor:Abuso de poder / corrupção, Comunidades camponesas

Maiores informações:Front Line Defenders

1Essa base de dados registra a opção de gênero. Caso eles/as não se identifiquem com o gênero masculino ou feminino, eles/as podem utilizar a opção de registro ‘outro/nenhum’ ou utiliizar o termo IGNB (identidade de gênero não binária).

Fr Vincent Machozi

On 20 March 2016, a dozen armed men wearing uniforms of the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo disrupted a peacemaking retreat in Vitungwe-Isale, Beni district of the North Kivu region and murdered Father Vincent Machozi, an Assumptionist Catholic priest and human rights defender who led the fight against extractive industries in the DRC. According to reports, onlookers said Vincent’s last words were: “Why are you killing?”

A native of Eastern Congo, Vincent decided to study theology in Angers, France, later to be ordained a priest in 1994. Thereafter, he joined the Assumptionist congregation and was sent to Kinshasa, DRC, to teach religion before being relocated to Butembo as head professor.

In 2013, Vincent Machozi fled the DRC to the United States after receiving several death threats. He worked as a Minister in Boston, Massachusetts, and while there launched the first online French-speaking news platform for Eastern DRC called Beni Lubero (www.benilubero.com).

The website documents human rights abuses in the DRC, especially those related to rights violations against the Nande people. Over the years, Machozi has been involved in several protests against the illegal trade of coltan, a mineral ore used in electronic devices. The so-called “war of coltan” in the mineral-rich eastern Congo has left millions dead and many more hundreds of thousands fleeing sexual and gender-based violence.

According to reports, transnational corporations are able to exert extreme pressure on DRC’s weak government and economy. As a result, the country’s natural resources have become an important factor in how poverty and violence rather than wealth and development are on the increase across the North Kivu region. According to Timothy Longman, a former colleague of Vincent‘s from Boston University, Vincent was trying to show the world who was killed and who was responsible. He wasn’t on any particular side‘.

Putting academia and his PhD thesis aside, Vincent Machozi returned to the DRC in 2012 to continue his human rights work. A few days before Vincent Machozi was killed, the human rights defender posted an article online denouncing the involvement of the Congolese and Rwandan presidents in the supposed massacres of innocent civilians over natural resources.

At the tenth anniversary of the website’s launch, Vincent Machozi states that for the past ten years, we have been the memory and the thermometer of this province‘…the media platform Beni Lubero, has informed the population ‘of 1,155 martyr cases all around the DRC and continues to denounce the current manoeuvers of the Rwandan occupation of the Kivu region and the balkanization happening in the country.

Alongside being a priest and editor of Beni Lubero, Vincent Machozi was the chairperson of the land rights organisation Kyaghanda Yira, named after the ethnic Yira/Nande people based in the North Kivu region. Since 2010 however, the Yira/Nande people are alleged to have been systematically harassed and massacred by armed groups for the purposes of exploiting coltan resources. The organisation called this a massacre and labelled it on it’s website a genocide of the Yira people.

According to the Rome-based vicar general of the Assumptionist order Rev. Emmanuel Kahindo, Vincent Machozi understood death to be an inevitable consequence which is sadly but all too closely associated with many human rights defender‘s. Fr Vincent Machozi told his fellow Congolese in October 2015: My days are numbered. I will be murdered, I feel it … but like Christ, for the sake of our people, I will not be silent. I will continue my fight to the end and continue to condemn all those who sow division and hatred between ethnic groups in the region.


Se quiser enviar uma recordação pessoal, favor nos enviar por e-mail: HRDMemorial@frontlinedefenders.org

Região:África

País:República Democrática do Congo

Departamento/Província/Estado:North Kivu

Gênero1:Masculino

Idade:51

Data da morte:23/03/2016

Ameaças Anteriores:Sim

Tipo de trabalho:Clérigo

Organização:Beni Lubero Online

Setor ou Tipo de Direitos que o/a DDH trabalhava:Direitos Civis e Políticos, Direitos ESC

Detalhes do Setor:Abuso de poder / corrupção, Comunidades camponesas

Maiores informações:Front Line Defenders

1Essa base de dados registra a opção de gênero. Caso eles/as não se identifiquem com o gênero masculino ou feminino, eles/as podem utilizar a opção de registro ‘outro/nenhum’ ou utiliizar o termo IGNB (identidade de gênero não binária).

Fr Vincent Machozi

On 20 March 2016, a dozen of armed men wearing uniforms of the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo, disrupted a peacemaking retreat in the social center called “My beautiful village” in Vitungwe-Isale, Beni district of the North Kivu region.  These men murdered Father Vincent Machozi, an Assumptionist Catholic priest who led the fight against the extractive industries and in support of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to reports, onlookers said Vincent’s last words were: “Why are you killing me?.

Over the years, Machozi had been involved in several protests against illegal trade coltan, a mineral ore used in electronic devices. The so-called “war of coltan” in the mineral-rich eastern Congo, has left millions dead and more than a million women raped. Transnational corporations are able to exert extreme pressure on Congo’s weak government and economy. As a result, the country’s natural resources have become an important factor in increasing poverty and violence rather than wealth and development. According to his colleague from Boston University, Timothy Longman, “Vincent was trying to show the world who was killed and who was responsible. He wasn’t on any particular side.”

Born in 1965 in a family of seven children, orphan from his father aged 15, Vincent decided to study theology and to join the Assumptionist congregation. After studying theology in Angers, France, he became a priest in 1994 and was sent to Kinshasa, DRC, to teach religion. Afterwards, he was the head professor in Butembo and following several death threats, left the country to the United States. He worked in Boston, Massachusetts, and launched the first French-speaking news portal on Eastern DRC called Beni Lubero (www.benilubero.com), a online platform documenting human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially against Vincent’s Nande people.

At the tenth anniversary of the website’s launch, Vincent was saying that “for the past ten years, we have been the memory and the thermometer of this province”, noting that Beni Lubero informed the population “on 1,155 martyr cases all around the DRC” and denounced “the current manoeuvers of the Rwandan occupation of the Kivu region and the balkanization going on in the country”.

On top of being priest and editor of Beni Lubero, Vincent Machozi was the chairperson of the organization Kyaghanda Yira, named after the main ethnicity in that part of the North Kivu region. This organization fights for the rights and land rights of the people. Since 2010, the Yira/Nande people are allegedly systematically chased and massacred by armed groups to exploit coltan resources. The organization called this massacre a “genocide of the Yira people”.

Vincent Machozi returned to the DRC in 2012, putting aside work on his PhD thesis exploring the role of the Catholic Church in transforming the conflict in his country in favor of human rights work. A few days before Vincent Machozi was killed, the priest posted an article implicating in the violence the DRC’s president from 2001, Joseph Kabila and Rwanda’s president since 2000, Paul Kagamé.

According to Rev. Emmanuel Kahindo, the Rome-based vicar general of the Assumptionist order and a fellow Congolese, Vincent Machozi knew the end was likely at hand, telling him in October 2015: “My days are numbered. I will be murdered, I feel it … but like Christ, for the sake of our people, I will not be silent. I will continue my fight to the end and continue to condemn all those who sow division and hatred between ethnic groups in the region to rule and continue to exploit the riches.”


Se quiser enviar uma recordação pessoal, favor nos enviar por e-mail: HRDMemorial@frontlinedefenders.org

Região:África

País:República Democrática do Congo

Departamento/Província/Estado:North Kivu

Gênero1:Masculino

Idade:51

Data da morte:23/03/2016

Ameaças Anteriores:Sim

Tipo de trabalho:Clérigo

Organização:Beni Lubero Online; Kyaghanda Yira

Setor ou Tipo de Direitos que o/a DDH trabalhava:Direitos Civis e Políticos, Direitos ESC

Detalhes do Setor:Abuso de poder / corrupção, Comunidades camponesas

Maiores informações:Front Line Defenders

1Essa base de dados registra a opção de gênero. Caso eles/as não se identifiquem com o gênero masculino ou feminino, eles/as podem utilizar a opção de registro ‘outro/nenhum’ ou utiliizar o termo IGNB (identidade de gênero não binária).