UN honours A Catholic Nun Namaika for LRA victim work
A nun helping
female victims of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in the Democratic
Republic of Congo is to receive a top UN award for her work.
Since 2003 Sister Angelique
Namaika has helped more 2,000 women and girls abused and displaced by the
rebels.
Sister Angelique set up a
centre in the north-eastern Congolese town of Dungu, a region where the UN says
electricity, running water and paved roads are scarce.
The
Roman Catholic nun told the BBC her first priority was to help the displaced
women and girls learn the local language, so they are able to talk to vendors
and go about their business.
"I
also teach them sewing, cooking and baking in order to help them to generate
some income - my goal for them is to be financially independent," she told
the BBC.
The money she
makes from selling crops she has cultivated pays for the sewing workshops, she
says.
"I
also have an oven at home, I bake breads every day which I sell, them money from
the bread helped me to organise other activities for the women," she told
the BBC.
Finding
out about the award was a "big surprise", she said.
She will receive the award at
the end of the month and afterwards will have an audience with Pope Francis.
She told the BBC it was a surprise to be honoured and she
would ask the Pope "to pardon [LRA leader] Joseph Kony".
Kony, who has an estimated 200-500 fighters in his movement,
is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.
He has waged war in northern
Uganda, South Sudan, north-eastern DR Congo and the Central African Republic
for more than two decades.
His
fighters are known for raiding remote areas and forcibly recruiting children to
serve as soldiers and sex slaves.
"I
will also ask the Pope to intervene so peace can return to our country,"
Sister Angelique told the BBC's Newsday programme
His
fighters are known for raiding remote areas and forcibly recruiting children to
serve as soldiers and sex slaves.
"I
will also ask the Pope to intervene so peace can return to our country,"
Sister Angelique told the BBC's Newsday programme
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