ARMED CONFLICT: Highlight on the Democratic Republic of Congo

Submitted by crinadmin on Fri, 22/03/2013 - 12:59

Summary: This briefing paper provides a background of the armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its impact on children.

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The conflict background

Engulfing the region
Recent events

Human rights violations

Attacks on education
Recruitment of child soldiers
Killing and maiming of children
Violence against children
Abduction

ICC involvement in the justice process

Sources

A vast country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the second largest in Africa. The country’s post-independence history has been scarred by a bloody conflict which peaked between 1998 and 2003, though armed groups continue to operate with impunity in the east of the country. The DRC has an appalling human rights record including arbitrary executions, rape, torture at the hands of the army, police, intelligence services as well as non-state armed groups.

While having the potential to be one of the richest countries in Africa, the DRC remains at the bottom of the list of countries in the Human Development Index due in part to weak State structures, corruption and governance problems, and to decades of violence that continue to affect eastern provinces. Foreign and local armed groups in the east are fighting for power, natural resources, or because of ethnic differences.

The conflict’s background

Following the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus, in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsis were killed, over 2 million Rwandan Hutus fled the Tutsi rebellion into the DRC, then called the Republic of Zaire, and sought refuge in camps, mostly in the two Congolese Kivu provinces in the east. In November 1996, Rwanda and Uganda as well as a Congolese rebellion led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila brutally dismantled the refugee camps to chase down the remaining suspected perpetrators of the genocide thought to be hiding there. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that only seven per cent of these refugees were involved in the genocide. These elements later contributed to creating the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) armed group, which remained on Congolese territory.

Engulfing the region

The coalition of Ugandan and Rwandan armies along with Kabila progressed towards Kinshasa and defeated Mobutu Sese Seko and the Congolese army in May 1997. Laurent-Désiré Kabila became president and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In 1998, Kabila requested that the Rwandan and Ugandan armies leave the Congolese territory; he received military support from neighbouring countries including Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The ensuing conflict led to the death of an estimated five million people between 1998 and 2003, mostly from disease and other health related problems.

Laurent-Désiré Kabila was assassinated in 2001 and his son Joseph was appointed president. The first democratic elections were held in 2006 from which Joseph Kabila emerged as victor. During that period, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a Tutsi-led militia group commanded by Laurent Nkunda claiming to defend the interests of the Tutsis in the DRC, became more active in pursuing the FDLR in the east.

Despite the signing of a peace agreement between the Congolese government and 22 armed groups in January 2008, fighting between the armed forces of the DRC (FARDC), the FDLR, the CNDP and other armed militias continued. But from 2009, the Rwandan and Congolese governments started cooperating in order to fight the FDLR still present in eastern Congo.

A peace agreement between the DRC authorities and the CNDP in March 2009 resulted in the integration of this armed group into the FARDC, but its main leaders, including Bosco Ntaganda, maintained a parallel chain of command within the Congolese armed forces.

Even though the new partnership between the DRC and Rwanda weakened the FDLR, they continued to operate in eastern Congo and are still active to this day.

In the Northeast, another foreign armed group, the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), has been active for many years and continues to cause terror and unrest killing hundreds and displacing thousands of villagers in the DRC and other countries in Africa (mainly Sudan and the Central African Republic). Read more about the LRA.

Human Rights Watch reported that 1400 civilians were killed between January and September 2009; 7500 were raped and 900,000 new internally displaced persons reported in North and South Kivu as a result of the military offensives by the FARDC and the FDLR. A UN report made public in December 2008, revealed Rwandan support to the CNDP as well as extensive collaboration between the FDLR and Congolese military officers.

Recent events

Since April 2012, with the emergence of the M23 armed group, mostly composed of ex-CNDP members of the FARDC who defected from the army, the security situation throughout eastern Congo has considerably deteriorated particularly in North Kivu owing to fighting between this group and the FARDC. The new wave of fighting forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee their home between April and July 2012. On 15 November 2012, following three months of de facto ceasefire between the M23 and FARDC, fighting broke out some 25 km in the North of Goma, around Kibumba. Both the UN and FARDC were overrun and the M23 took Goma on 20 November. The M23 further seized control of other towns in the west of Goma.

Following intensive negotiations within the framework of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) in Kampala, there have been signs of the M23 pulling out since 27 November 2012. However, due to internal tensions between the political and military wings of the M23, the situation remains volatile and whether the M23 will pull out completely of Goma remains yet to be seen.

There are still more than 50 different armed groups operating in the eastern borderlands. Many of these are not well organised, leaving two rebel groups as the major threat for the country’s stability.

The first, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF-Nalu), is opposed to the Ugandan government. It arrived from Uganda in 1995 and has managed to defeat all the attempts to neutralise them. ADF-Nalu comprises some 800 to 1,400 men and a number of women and children. Women are usually turned into “bush wives” and children are recruited to serve as soldiers.

The other rebel group is called the Raia Mutomboki (“angered citizens” in Kiswahili). It started operating in 2011 and was initially created as a response to attacks perpetrated by the FDLR. The members see themselves as self-defense militias. However, the group profited from flaws in the peace deals to become a violent militia deployed in North and South Kivu. They carry out village massacres based on ethnic rivalries. The victims are, for the most part, children, women and elderly, unable to flee villages before the arrival of the militia.

The situation is the country is more tensed with the upcoming 2016 presidential elections.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center stated that 2.75 million Congolese have been displaced and 509,000 more have become refugees as of January 2013. Since the outbreak of conflict in 1998, it is estimated that some 6.9 million Congolese have died.

Human rights violations

In 2005, the UN described eastern Congo as "the world’s worst humanitarian crisis". More than 5 million people died in the conflict from 1998 to 2003, 2.7 million of them were children. More than 200,000 women and girls have been victims of rape or other acts of sexual violence.

Attacks on education

According to the report of the Special Rapporteur to the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict (June 2015), 22 schools were attacked and 12 were used for military purposes in 2014. It affected over 31,000 children. Ten schools were also destroyed or looted and their materials burned during clashes in April 2014.

Recruitment of child soldiers

All armed groups operating in the DRC have recruited boys and girls and have used them in hostilities including as fighters, messengers, spies, cooks, or to carry ammunition. In April 2011, Child Soldiers International reported:

"Tens of thousands of children have been released from the armed forces and from armed groups including during the integration of armed groups into the national army [in 2009]. However, many under-18s were absorbed into the army during integration processes and, while child recruitment levels by the army are lower than in previous years, effective mechanisms to prevent underage recruitment are still lacking."

In 2014, the United Nations documented 241 new cases of recruitment (223 boys, 18 girls). Recruitment was carried out by:

Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) (63),
Nyatura (32), Rayia Mutomboki (19),
Union des patriotes congolais pour la paix (UPCP) (17),
Forces de résistance patriotiques en Ituri (FRPI) (16),
LRA (13),
Nduma Defence Coalition/Cheka (NDC/Cheka) (13),
Mayi Mayi Alliance pour un Congo libre et souverain (APCLS) (7)
and other Mayi Mayi groups (61).

Of the 18 girls, eight were victims of sexual violence.

Despite two Government directives, children continued to be arrested and detained for their association with armed groups. In 2014, the United Nations secured the release of 121 children (110 boys, 11 girls) from FARDC, police and military prosecutor detention centres. 40 per cent of the children reported being subjected to ill-treatment during detention.

Killing and maiming of children

In 2014, the UN reported a total of 80 children (52 boys, 28 girls) killed and 92 maimed (48 boys, 44 girls).

38 per cent of child casualties occurred during brutal attacks by ADF in Beni Territory, in which at least 250 persons, including 35 children, were massacred with machetes, knives, hammers or axes. In addition, 40 children (16 boys, 24 girls) were respectively killed and maimed by explosive remnants of war.

Violence against children

The UN documented 334 cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence (332 girls, 2 boys) in 2014, constituting a significant increase compared with 2013. State agents perpetrated 30 per cent of the documented violations (99). The remaining cases were perpetrated by rebel groups.

The ADF-Nalu was responsible for brutal attacks on women and children in several villages, including acts of beheading, mutilation, and rape.

Abduction

In 2014, armed groups abducted 108 children (65 boys, 43 girls), 55 per cent out of whom were below the age of 15. At least 11 abductees were used as combatants and 22 girls were subjected to sexual slavery.

ICC involvement in the justice process

In 2012, former Ituri warlord Thomas Lubanga was found guilty by the ICC of recruiting child soldiers and was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. A second judgment was rendered in 2014, and three other warlords have been indicted.

On September 2, 2015, the trial of Bosco Ntaganda started at the ICC. He is the fourth person to be tried before the ICC for grave international crimes allegedly committed in the DRC. He is facing numerous charges, including the war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under 15 as soldiers and using them to participate actively in hostilities in the context of the armed conflict in Ituri in 2002 and 2003.