”We bless them, He blesses us”, was the slogan of ‘Operation Blessing’, an aid campaign initiated by multi-millionaire US televangelist Pat Robertson, CEO of The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBC) in 1994. During an escalating refugee crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while the whole international community struggled to provide help and supplies for those in need, Robertson ran a campaign on CBC to raise money to purportedly help Rwandan genocide refugees fleeing the civil war into Congo. At the time, Robertson produced glowing reports of his charity’s relief efforts, raising millions in tax-free donations which - according to the investigation conducted by film-makers David Taylor and Lara Zizic - ended up covering for a whole different ‘mission’: diamond mining. 

As the documentary world sees a growing interest in the dynamics of international humanitarianism, particularly in relation to the ethical problems of delivering aid into highly politicized wars, Mission Congo exposes a case of corruption and interference of the human rights agenda with collateral, commercial and political agendas. The premiere of Mission Congo at TIFF (Toronto) in September 2013 determined Operation Blessing International to issue an extensive statement in response to the allegedly “defamatory and malicious allegations” put forward by the film.