Demokratische Republik Kongo: Kongosi Onia Mussanzi

I long for the day I will return home and continue with the peace building process.

— Kongosi Onia Mussanzi

Kongosi Onia Mussanzi (52) has spent ten years campaigning and advocating for peace. She co-founded the Centre Résolution Conflits (CRC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but had to flee to the UK because of death threats. She is involved in conflict resolution, trauma counseling and reconciliation, with NGOs, churches and political leaders, students and women traumatized through rape. As a peacemaker she now works at a global level moving across UK to give talks in collaboration with Tearfund and Amnesty International.

Danger lurked as the conditions worsened. She had to hide in the bushes with her children. Then, troops loyal to Laurent Kabila attacked her hometown of Nyankunde. She was forced to relocate to Bunia but continued to travel to the communities to provide relief food. In 2002, the threats heightened and she fled to England, where she now has refugee status. Clinging on to her dream for peace, thousands of miles away from home, she gives talks in the UK, working with institutions like Action for Conflict Transformation. Kongosi Mussanzi completed an M.A. in Education Sciences and Psychology and worked as a teacher before heading the Internal Audit section of the Centre Médical Evangélique (CME) in the DRC. In 1993, Kongosi Mussanzi co-founded with her husband the CRC, involved in peace education, conflict resolution, reconciliation and trauma counseling, together with NGOs, churches and political leaders, students, teenagers and women who have been raped. Kongossi attended an intensive training session provided by Working With Conflict in 2000. She later became the director of CRC while her husband studied in England. She longs for the day she will return home to continue with the peace building process.

Centre Médical Evangélique (CME) Centre Résolution Conflits (CRC)