Tutsi-led militia archivos -

Goma: Cry of the Imburi.

February 11, 2025February 11, 2025
by Rene Wadlow

The Imburi are spirits that are said to inhabit the forests of Gabon in Equatorial Africa, and who cry out for those who can hear them at times of impending violence and danger. The Imburi are now crying out loudly on the increasing dangers and forced migration in Goma, capital of the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo – democratic in name only.

The 31 July 2024 ceasefire agreement – never fully effective – has now been broken. Troops of the Tutsi-led militia known as M23 along with regular military of Rwanda are advancing toward Goma, the capital of North Kivu. The Association of World Citizens has members in Goma who keep us informed of the critical situation there – getting worse each day.

This eastern area of the Congo has been the scene of fighting at least since 1998 – in part as a result of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda in 1994.

People in the neighboring province of South Kivu are frightened and have started to flee. There are a large number of displaced persons in both North and South Kivu and some have fled across the frontier into Burundi. Many people are living in displaced persons camps in difficult situations despite the efforts of the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and humanitarian aid organizations.

This eastern area of the Congo has been the scene of fighting at least since 1998 – in part as a result of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda in 1994. In mid 1994, more than one million Rwandan Hutu refugees poured into the Kivus, fleeing the advance of the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front, now become the government of Rwanda. Many of these Hutu were still armed, among them the “genocidaire” who a couple of months before had participated in the killing of some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda.

The disintegrating situation in Democratic Republic of Congo and the need help develop the rule of law and a vital civil society.

Today, there is still large-scale occurence of seious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by all parties with massive displacement of populations, plundering of villages, systematic rape of women, summary executions and the use of child soldiers. There is a report from the U.N. Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo of 27 December 2024 which outlines clearly the disintegrating situation.

Thus, there is a need to create an enabling political environment which would help develop the rule of law and a vital civil society – a vast task that the Imburi are not sure will be carried quickly enough.

René Wadlow, Presindent, Association of World Citizens.

Credits:

Featured Image: M23 fighters loyal to Bosco Ntaganda move along the road towards Goma as Peacekeepers observed gathering of armed people North of the city, the 1st of March 2013. © MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti. By MONUSCO Photos, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Appeals

Democratic Republic of Congo: Sky Getting Darker.

August 13, 2023
by Rene Wadlow

Photo by jorono, Pixabay.

The armed conflict in the eastern area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC) on the frontier with Rwanda seems to be growing worse and is impacting in a negative way the lives of people. The current fighting adds to the insecurity of the area and has virtually stopped cross-frontier activities largely done by women small traders. As a result, the price of existing food supplies has increased greatly, and shortages are to be feared.

The current armed conflict is among a Tutsi-led militia, the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23), the forces of the RDC government and different ethnic militias. The President of the RDC, Felix Tshisekedi, sponsored the creation of local militias to help government soldiers, but the government does not control these militias. The United Nations (UN) Stabilization Mission in the Congo (MONUSCO) which has been in the RDC since 1999 is the largest UN peacekeeping force with some 15,000 members.

U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo meets with Democratic Republic of the Congo President Felix Tshisekedi on the margins of the NATO Ministerial at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., in Washington, D.C., on April 3, 2019. [State Department photo by Michael Gross/ Public Domain]. By U.S. Department of State from United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Helmet Icon of United Nations Peacekeeping Logo. By United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

A theoretical UN sponsored arms embargo.

However, it has been unable to halt the fighting or to protect civilians. In fact, the area of conflict has grown and engendered a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, causing the displacement of more than one million civilians in North Kivu Province. The M23 has recently launched attempts to win allies in South Kivu Province, in particular the armed group Twirwaneko, with the objective of opening a front in South Kivu.

The government of Rwanda has become increasingly involved in the Kivu conflict with direct intervention by the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) and, despite a theoretical UN sponsored arms embargo, with weapons and other military equipment. The M23 is also fighting against the Forces démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) a Hutu-led group hostile to the government of Rwanda.

Non-State actors and armed militias such as those in the RDC.

Recent attacks by M23 on populations associated with, or presumed to support the FDLR, have grown. Incidents of rape, including gang rape, by M23 combatants are prevalent but are not limited to the M23. The armed conflict is colored by a tense political situation with general elections, most significantly a presidential election, scheduled for December 2023.

The increased violence indicates the need for local non-governmental peacebuilding efforts which can be also facilitated by international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). There is also a greater need to build respect for International Humanitarian Law (IHL). When the framework of current IHL as drafted in the 1948 Geneva Conventions in light of the experiences of World War II, the focus was upon the actions of national armies. Today, much violence and strife is due to non-State actors and armed militias such as those in the RDC.

There are two major weaknesses in the effectiveness of IHL.

The first is that many people do not know that it exists and that they are bound by its norms. Thus, there is an important role for greater educational activities, the dissemination of information to the wider public, specific training of the military, outreach to armed militias, and cooperation with a wide range of NGOs.
The second weakness is that those violating IHL are rarely punished. Few soldiers are tried or court-martialed. This weakness is even more true for non-state militias and armed groups. There is yet much to do for the realization of the rule of law.

Note.

For useful guides to International Humanitarian Law see: D. Schindler and J. Toman, The Laws of Armed Conflict (Martinus Nihjoff Publishers, 1988).
H. McCoubrey and N.D. White, International Law and Armed Conflict (Dartmouth Publishing Co. 1992).

Prof. René Wadlow is President of the Association of World Citizens.