Is a genocide looming in Eastern Congo?
Jun 06, 2007
A threatening situation is developing in the Kivu region in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with ethnic tensions rising high and the Rwandan Hutu militia groups gaining ground.
By Emmy Alio
A threatening situation is developing in the Kivu region in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with ethnic tensions rising high and the Rwandan Hutu militia groups gaining ground.
The death toll in three villages in South Kivu province where sleeping villagers were last weekend clubbed or hacked to death by the Hutu extremists has risen to 29.
The United Nations Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC) investigators, trying to reach the affected villages, have been met by stone-throwing crowds. A faction of a Rwandan rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), carried out the killings in retaliation over Congolese army operations against them. The faction, known as ‘the Rastas’, vowed to return to punish civilians.
This incident is a picturesque reminder of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda where the extremist Hutu, known as the Interahamwe and former fighters of Rwandan Armed Forces (Ex-FAR) clubbed, macheted and shot to death an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderates Hutus in 100 days.
In Congo, the extremists Rwandan Hutus, operating under the umbrella of FDLR, have continued to kill indigenous Congolese civilians, but threats to flush them out have not materialised. Yet FDLR has continued to grow in strength and experience. Conservative estimates by the International Crisis Group has estimated their strength at 8,000 to 10,000. Their dream is to return to Rwanda.
MONUC website has pointed to Walungu, Kanyola, Kyalubeze, Chikamba territory in south Kivu province as being controlled by the Rwandan Hutu extremists.
In North Kivu province, the Hutu extremists are equally active and control villages in Rutshuru territory. They use bases inside Virunga and Maiko national parks to raid neighbouring villages. In these camps, women are trained as soldiers, and children are born and brought up as soldiers.
Ishasha and Nyamirima, along the Uganda borderline, are operation zones for these militias, who are closely associated with the Mai Mai group of Vasaka Sikuli Kakule alias La Fontaine.
New threats
There were renewed calls for peace in north Kivu province when the largest rebel group, led by Gen. Laurent Nkunda, signed a ceasefire agreement in Kigali last December.
The accord imposed a militay strategy whereby Nkunda and the Congolese army—FARDC agreed to merge their forces with a particular objective of fighting the Hutu extremists.
The mixed brigades, locally referred to as mixage, registered several victories against FDLR and drove them deeper into the jungles and national parks.
This wind of change was reversed by the sudden support FDLR received from leaders of the main ethnic groups: the Wanande, the Watembo, Wahunde and Wanyange.
A new anti-Tutsi alliance, PAROCO-FAP was born on March 15. The composition of its commanders showed the ethnic composition of the ethnic tribes of north Kivu. But also, it included a Rwandan Hutu only known as as Col. Mugabo.
The original document of PARECO-FAP gave the command structure as Col. Sikuli Kakule (Munande), Col. Ntasibaganga (a Muhunde), Col. Blaise (a Munyange) and Col. Kirikicho (a Tembo.
One of the objectives of PARECO-FAP is that the local population will support the Hutus. The alliance also want the Rwandan Hutu problem to be resolved through dialogue with the Kigali government. The group asked the population to reject the mixed brigade of Nkunda’s forces and the Congolese army. Surprisingly, the support for the group was big and its activities forced Nkunda to threaten to withdraw from the mixage arrangement.
The increased fighting and tension led to a refugee influx into Uganda IDPs. The inflamed situation also forced a seven-man ministerial delegation, led by interior minister Denis Kalume Numbi, to reconcile the north Kivu tribes and discuss the question of mixage.
The ministers are yet to release their report. But anger is brewing in Kigali and on the ranks of Nkunda’s soldiers.
The Kigali fury led to the Kinshasa government requesting for a meeting to discuss the issue of the Hutu extremists.
The New Times of Rwanda recently confirmed that the Congolese authorities wrote to the Rwanda government requesting for a meeting between the two in a bid to find a lasting solution to the activities of FDLR rebels.
Quoting the Rwandan State Minister for Regional Cooperation, Rosemary Museminari, The New Tmes confirmed that the meeting with DRC officials will be in Lubumbashi on May 5 to May 7.
The talks will be held in the margin of Tripartie –plus meetings, which brings together Rwanda, DRC, Uganda and Burundi.
The hate campaign preached by PARECOF-TAP and major ethnic groups in north Kivu province is similar to the situation that led to the one in Rwanda before 1994.
A more serious regional mechanism is required to stop a potential new genocide in the Great Lakes region.
A threatening situation is developing in the Kivu region in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with ethnic tensions rising high and the Rwandan Hutu militia groups gaining ground.
The death toll in three villages in South Kivu province where sleeping villagers were last weekend clubbed or hacked to death by the Hutu extremists has risen to 29.
The United Nations Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC) investigators, trying to reach the affected villages, have been met by stone-throwing crowds. A faction of a Rwandan rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), carried out the killings in retaliation over Congolese army operations against them. The faction, known as ‘the Rastas’, vowed to return to punish civilians.
This incident is a picturesque reminder of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda where the extremist Hutu, known as the Interahamwe and former fighters of Rwandan Armed Forces (Ex-FAR) clubbed, macheted and shot to death an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderates Hutus in 100 days.
In Congo, the extremists Rwandan Hutus, operating under the umbrella of FDLR, have continued to kill indigenous Congolese civilians, but threats to flush them out have not materialised. Yet FDLR has continued to grow in strength and experience. Conservative estimates by the International Crisis Group has estimated their strength at 8,000 to 10,000. Their dream is to return to Rwanda.
MONUC website has pointed to Walungu, Kanyola, Kyalubeze, Chikamba territory in south Kivu province as being controlled by the Rwandan Hutu extremists.
In North Kivu province, the Hutu extremists are equally active and control villages in Rutshuru territory. They use bases inside Virunga and Maiko national parks to raid neighbouring villages. In these camps, women are trained as soldiers, and children are born and brought up as soldiers.
Ishasha and Nyamirima, along the Uganda borderline, are operation zones for these militias, who are closely associated with the Mai Mai group of Vasaka Sikuli Kakule alias La Fontaine.
New threats
There were renewed calls for peace in north Kivu province when the largest rebel group, led by Gen. Laurent Nkunda, signed a ceasefire agreement in Kigali last December.
The accord imposed a militay strategy whereby Nkunda and the Congolese army—FARDC agreed to merge their forces with a particular objective of fighting the Hutu extremists.
The mixed brigades, locally referred to as mixage, registered several victories against FDLR and drove them deeper into the jungles and national parks.
This wind of change was reversed by the sudden support FDLR received from leaders of the main ethnic groups: the Wanande, the Watembo, Wahunde and Wanyange.
A new anti-Tutsi alliance, PAROCO-FAP was born on March 15. The composition of its commanders showed the ethnic composition of the ethnic tribes of north Kivu. But also, it included a Rwandan Hutu only known as as Col. Mugabo.
The original document of PARECO-FAP gave the command structure as Col. Sikuli Kakule (Munande), Col. Ntasibaganga (a Muhunde), Col. Blaise (a Munyange) and Col. Kirikicho (a Tembo.
One of the objectives of PARECO-FAP is that the local population will support the Hutus. The alliance also want the Rwandan Hutu problem to be resolved through dialogue with the Kigali government. The group asked the population to reject the mixed brigade of Nkunda’s forces and the Congolese army. Surprisingly, the support for the group was big and its activities forced Nkunda to threaten to withdraw from the mixage arrangement.
The increased fighting and tension led to a refugee influx into Uganda IDPs. The inflamed situation also forced a seven-man ministerial delegation, led by interior minister Denis Kalume Numbi, to reconcile the north Kivu tribes and discuss the question of mixage.
The ministers are yet to release their report. But anger is brewing in Kigali and on the ranks of Nkunda’s soldiers.
The Kigali fury led to the Kinshasa government requesting for a meeting to discuss the issue of the Hutu extremists.
The New Times of Rwanda recently confirmed that the Congolese authorities wrote to the Rwanda government requesting for a meeting between the two in a bid to find a lasting solution to the activities of FDLR rebels.
Quoting the Rwandan State Minister for Regional Cooperation, Rosemary Museminari, The New Tmes confirmed that the meeting with DRC officials will be in Lubumbashi on May 5 to May 7.
The talks will be held in the margin of Tripartie –plus meetings, which brings together Rwanda, DRC, Uganda and Burundi.
The hate campaign preached by PARECOF-TAP and major ethnic groups in north Kivu province is similar to the situation that led to the one in Rwanda before 1994.
A more serious regional mechanism is required to stop a potential new genocide in the Great Lakes region.