Michael J. Sharp

1982 - 2017

Michael Jesse Sharp, 34, of Albuquerque, N.M., died as he lived: fully engaged. He died on or about March 15, 2017, near Muswila in the Kasai Central Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He was abducted March 12 and killed by unnamed assailants while investigating a new outbreak of violence as an armed group expert and coordinator of the United Nations Group of Experts on the DR Congo. Their bodies were found by UN peacekeepers on March 27, and identities were confirmed March 28. Michael J. "M.J." was born Oct. 29, 1982, in Elkhart, Ind. He is survived by his parents, John E. and Michele Miller Sharp, of Hesston, Kan.; two sisters, Erin Sharp and her husband Alex Levene and two children Oscar and Lucy, of Denver, Colo., and Laura and her husband Nick Enzinna Sharp and son Jesse, of North Newton, Kan. He was preceded in death by his maternal grandfather, Mahlon D. Miller, of Goshen, Ind.; paternal grandparents Jesse and Amelia (Peachey) Sharp, of Belleville, Pa.; an uncle, Roy R. Sharp, of Casa Grande Ariz.; and an aunt, Sally Sharp Mullet, of Sarasota, Fla. M.J. lived in Harleysville, Pa. (1983-1989), Scottdale, Pa. (1989-1995), and Middlebury and Goshen, Ind. (1995-2001). He graduated from Bethany Christian High School in 2001 and attended Eastern Mennonite University, where in 2005, he earned a BA in history and a minor in German. After graduating from EMU, Sharp worked for three years with the Military Counseling Network in Germany, a project of the German Mennonite Peace Committee to serve U.S. soldiers based in Europe who sought discharge from military service for conscientious objection or other reasons. In 2010, he earned an MA in peace studies and conflict resolution from Philipps-Universitat Marburg in Germany. From 2012 to 2015, Sharp was an Eastern Congo coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee in the DRC. Here he worked with such agencies as the Program for Peace and Reconciliation of the Congolese Protestant Council of Churches and Friends' Peace House of the Evangelical Friends Church in Rwanda to send peace builders into the forest unarmed to persuade rebels to release child soldiers, disarm and repatriate. From 2015 to 2017, he was an armed group expert on the United Nations Group of Experts. He was also appointed coordinator for the Group of Experts in 2016 and was serving in these capacities when he, his UN colleague Zaida Cataln and four Congolese men were seized while investigating recent atrocities and possible human rights violations in Kasai Central Province in the DRC. Cataln was also killed.
A memorial service was held April 15 at Hesston Mennonite Church, Hesston, Kan.
Memorial gifts may be made to MCC Congo Peace, Mennonite Central Committee, 21 S. 12th St., P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500. For more, see http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Sharp,_Michael_Jesse_(1982-2017).