Democratic Republic of Congo

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Last Update: May. 19, 2009

Civilians in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo remain victims of mass killings, severe torture and widespread rape at the hands of numerous armed groups operating in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale. Over 1.5 million people are displaced throughout the country, with over one million of these in North Kivu alone. 250,000 of these have been displaced since August of 2008.

GI-NET has included the DR Congo as an Area of Concern due to the deliberate targeting of civilians, the ten year duration of the fighting and the brutality of the atrocities committed against civilians.We currently engage in advocacy efforts to alleviate the situation in the DR Congo in partnership with the ENOUGH Project.

GI-NET estimates that at least 700 civilians have died in violence between government forces and rebel militias in 2008. Additionally, rapes take place at an epidemic level in the DRC and GI-NET estimates that more than 10,000 rapes have taken place in North and South Kivu in 2008 alone.

In Orientale province, more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in massacres committed by the Lord's Resistance Army, these attacks have killed more people in two months than all other groups did in all of 2008. In early 2009, FDLR rebels have committed revenge attacks against civilians near the DR Congo's eastern border.

All armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have committed widespread mass atrocities against civilians, including rape, torture, forced displacement, summary execution and murder. There is substantial evidence that indicates violence is targeted against civilians on the basis of ethnic identity.

Background on Democratic Republic of Congo

Ethnic tensions in the eastern DR Congo arise out of the Kivu's role as a meeting point of the Congolese and Banyarwanda (Rwandan and Burundian) ethnic groups. Interethnic relations in eastern DR Congo have been strained over political influence and land rights as well as two massive refugee inflows from Rwanda and Burundi since the early 1970's. The first involved Hutus who fled massacres in Burundi in 1972. The second wave, nearly 1.4 million refugees, included Rwandan soldiers and the Interahamwe militiamen complicit in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The presence of génocidaires in the DR Congo prompted a Rwandan incursion, which led to the First Congo War. Shortly after this war ended, tensions over Rwandan influence in the Congo started the Second Congo War. Conflict between factions lasted until 2003 and fighting was marked by extreme human rights violations, including rape, ethnic cleansing and mass murder. Since the end of the Second Congo War, the DRC has emerged as a fragile democracy, but the tensions in North Kivu continue.

Fighting in North Kivu arose in late 2007 when soldiers in General Laurent Nkunda's CNDP militia ambushed government troops. The CNDP fought with the Congolese Army (FARDC) and Mai Mai and Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR) militias, resulting in widespread human rights abuses in North and South Kivu. In order to find a solution to the violence, the CNDP and the Congolese government met at Goma, resulting in an agreement that was violated almost immediately.

Throughout 2008, sporadic fighting between the CNDP and FARDC, as well as widespread human rights abuses, continued. In October 2008, the CNDP began a large offensive, which capturing large portions of North Kivu before halting at the edge of Goma.

After the CNDP threat subsided, the Lord's Resistance Army began an offensive against the civilian population near the town of Dungu in the Haut-Uélé region of northeastern DR Congo. In a two-month span, the group killed over 900 civilians in retaliation to a Ugandan-South Sudanese-Congolese attempt to capture the group's commanders.

The FDLR has reemerged as a threat to civilians in North and South Kivu, and has begun to target civilians in these areas in apparent retribution for a joint Rwandan-Congolese offensive against them in early 2009. Recent FDLR attacks have killed nearly 200 people since January 2009.

For more information about threats in the Democratic Republic of Congo, please read our Suggested Reading Materials or the International Rescue Committee's Special Report on Congo or Human Rights Watch's report Killings in Kiwanja.

Who are the parties to the conflict?

There are four actors that are currently committing mass atrocities against non-combatant civilians in the eastern DR Congo

The Congolese Army (FARDC). The army consists of poorly trained and frequently unpaid soldiers that lack supplies and the group is known for committing widespread human rights violations. Its soldiers loot and pillage villages during the military campaigns against insurgent groups. According to the UN Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), 40% of all human rights violations in the second half of 2006 were perpetrated by the Congolese Army, a state of affairs that sadly continues.

CNDP rebels. The CNDP is responsible for the majority of attacks against civilians in North Kivu throughout 2008. CNDP soldiers are known to indiscriminately kill, rape and severely injure civilians throughout the region, including the massacre of 150 people in Kiwanja. Alleged war criminal Bosco Ntaganda is currently believed to be heading the CNDP. For more information on CNDP abuses, read the Human Rights Watch Report, Killings in Kiwanja.

Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda (FDLR). The FDLR is comprised of former Rwandan militants who fled to the Kivus after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Patterns of violence indicate that FDLR forces commit widespread atrocities in areas where the Tutsi and other non-Hutu ethnic groups are the majority.

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Led by indicted war criminal Joseph Kony, the LRA deliberately commits violence against civilians in the northeastern DR Congo. LRA fighters have killed, raped and abducted thousands of civilians across the Great Lakes region. In December 2008 and January 2009, the LRA emerged as one of the largest threats to civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Stories from the conflict

"They immediately brought us all together and tied up the other six. They didn't tie me, I guess because I'm too old. One of the soldiers then went into the house and started to take all the clothes and other goods they could find. Then they came out and started the killing. The first person killed was my brother. They chopped his skull with an axe. Then they pulled me and one of my cousins to the side and hit my cousin with the axe. He fell down, and I fell under him. The blood from his head ran onto me, and the LRA thought I had already been killed. It all happened very quick

- Survivor of the LRA's December 26^th attack on Nanengwa, DR Congo.

"The Christmas Massacres," Human Rights Watch, February 2009.

Reports on Democratic Republic of Congo

Additional links about Democratic Republic of Congo

For More Information on DR Congo, Click Here

Videos about Democratic Republic of Congo

Featured Video: International Rescue Committee: Why Give a Damn About Congo?

In 2007, the International Rescue Committee researched the casualties of the enduring conflict in the DRC and came to a shocking conclusion.

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