Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER II. First Congo War > B. Attacks against Hutu refugees > 4. Orientale Province > Along the Kisangani–Opala road

In early April 1997, refugees from the Ubundu territory, the probable survivors of the Biaro and Kasese massacres, gathered in the Yalikaka locality, by the Lobaye River.

• In April 1997, acting on the orders of a civilian, some residents of Yalikaka village in the Opala territory allegedly killed at least 50 refugees with cold weapons and blows of sticks. The bodies were buried at the scene or dumped in the river. This attack is thought to have been carried out in retaliation for the murder of a village resident a short time earlier by ex-FAR/Interahamwe units.²⁹¹

After the massacre, the residents of Yalikaka village continued to prevent many refugees from crossing the river and escaping. They also informed AFDL/APR (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo / Rwandan Patriotic Army) soldiers about refugees present in the village.

• Towards 28 April 1997, around twenty AFDL/APR soldiers arrived in the village of Yalikaka and allegedly killed hundreds of refugees. Upon their arrival, they interrogated the refugees and removed at least one Zairian who was among them. They then shot dead the refugees. The bodies of the victims were buried at the scene by the villagers.²⁹²

After the fall of Kisangani and the destruction of the camps between Kisangani and Ubundu, several thousand refugees regrouped in the villages of Lusuma and Makako, 206 kilometres from Kisangani. Unable to cross the Lomami River to reach Opala, they remained in these villages, looting the property and crops of civilians. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• Between April and May 1997, some residents of Yalikaka village and AFDL/APR units shot dead or killed with cold weapons 300 refugees in the village of Makako in the Opala territory.²⁹³
• In April and May, along the road between Yaoleka and Anzi in the Opala territory, villagers killed several dozen refugees by attacking them with poisoned arrows or leaving poisoned food for them to find. By so doing, the villagers hoped to dissuade the refugees from setting up camp in their villages and, in some cases, to take their revenge for the acts of looting carried out by ex-FAR/Interahamwe units and refugees as they crossed the area. Between 25 and 30 refugees were killed at Yaata, 10 at Lilanga, 21 at Lekatelo and around forty at Otala, at the border with Équateur province.²⁹⁴

The victory of AFDL/APR over the FAZ and ex-FAR/Interahamwe in Orientale province failed to put an end to the massacre, forced disappearances and serious violations of the rights of refugees in the province.

• From May or June 1997, during a planned operation, AFDL/APR soldiers allegedly killed an unknown number of refugees, including some ex-FAR units, in the Bengamisa locality, 51 kilometres north of Kisangani. The victims had been kidnapped in Kisangani and the surrounding area and transported to a military base.²⁹⁵ According to witnesses, the soldiers are alleged to have led the victims to believe that they were going to take them back to Rwanda by road. When they arrived at the camp buildings, the victims, who included a large number of women and children, were led outside in small groups. They were bound and their throats were cut or they were killed by hammer blows to the head. The bodies were then thrown into pits or doused with petrol and burned. The operation was carried out in a methodical manner and lasted at least one month. Before vacating the premises, the soldiers tried to erase all trace of the massacres. With the aid of a motor boat and a canoe, they dumped the bodies in the river rapids, along with some of the soil taken from the extermination site. They also detonated bombs in the camp to turn over the earth where the bodies had been buried. ²⁹⁶

After the closure of the Bengamisa camp, the AFDL/APR soldiers set up camp around thirty kilometres away in the Alibuku locality. They set up a temporary camp five kilometres from the village, in an unoccupied zone near a gravel quarry. They told the villagers that they were looking for the Hutus who had killed the Tutsis in Rwanda and asked them to help in their search. They set up a roadblock on the camp’s access road and ordered the chef de secteur to ban the people from hunting in the surrounding forest.

• From June 1997 and in the two or three months that followed, AFDL/APR units allegedly killed an unknown number of refugees around Alibuku. Twice a week, a truck carrying refugees arrived at the site, escorted by two AFDL/APR military jeeps. The victims were killed with cold weapons or bound and thrown alive from the hilltop into the rocky valley below. It is impossible to determine accurately the number of people killed at this site, but given the number of comings and goings, the victims probably run to several hundred. Before they left, the soldiers tried to erase all trace of the massacres. After they had left, however, a group of women from the village found many human remains at the scene.²⁹⁷

As in the other provinces, the victory of the AFDL/APR soldiers over the FAZ did not signal the end of the serious violations of human rights of refugees in Orientale province. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• On 4 September 1997, at four o’clock in the morning, FAC²⁹⁸/APR soldiers took 765 refugees from a transit camp eleven kilometres from Kisangani and forcibly repatriated them to Rwanda and Burundi without third-party witnesses (UN organisations or NGOs). The operation concerned 440 Rwandans and 325 Burundians, including 252 women and 242 children.²⁹⁹

• In September 1997, in the presence of the local administrative authorities, FAC/APR soldiers carried out a systematic search of houses around the Lula refugee camp, seven kilometres from Kisangani, to remove refugee children being sheltered by locals. According to one witness, the soldiers are alleged to have said that the Hutus were an evil race that would create problems for the Congolese. They also added that “even the children, once they became adults (…) would start to do unbelievable things”. Aid agencies were not involved in the repatriation of these children and their fate remains unknown.³⁰⁰
• In November 1997, FAC/APR soldiers kidnapped 33 refugees at Kisangani General Hospital and took them to an unknown destination.³⁰¹
• Between January and February 1998, FAC/APR soldiers arrested four Rwandan refugees, including two minors, in Kisangani. Their fate is still unknown. The victims were members of the same family. The father had been teaching at the Université des Sciences in Kisangani since 1996.³⁰²