Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER II. First Congo War > B. Attacks against Hutu refugees > 2. North Kivu > Masisi territory

From 15 November 1996, the AFDL/APR (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo / Rwandan Patriotic Army) soldiers went in pursuit of the refugee survivors and the ex-FAR/Interahamwe who were escaping across the Masisi towards the town of Walikale. They caught up with the slowest units of the column, who were settled in makeshift camps in the villages of Osso, Kinigi and Katoyi (mainly survivors of Mugunga and Kibumba), Kilolirwe, Ngandjo, Nyamitaba, Miandja, Nyaruba, Kirumbu and Kahira (mainly survivors of Kahindo and Katale). During their operations against the refugees, the AFDL/APR soldiers often received the backing of local Mayi-Mayi groups, who saw this as an opportunity to take their revenge on the Hutu armed groups with whom they had been at war for over three years and who had been supported by the ex-FAR/Interahamwe from 1994 onwards. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• On 19 November 1996, Mayi-Mayi combatants siding with the AFDL stormed the village of Ngungu with the support of the AFDL/APR artillery, indiscriminately killing an unknown number of refugees and ex-FAR/Interahamwe. It is hard to ascertain the total number of victims. According to several sources, the figure may run to several hundred.²⁴⁵

• In the second half of November 1996, units of the AFDL/APR killed dozens of refugees in the makeshift camp next to Osso farm, in the Masisi territory. First, the AFDL/APR soldiers exchanged fire with the ex-FAR/Interahamwe based in the camp. The ex-FAR/Interahamwe beat a hasty retreat, however, and the AFDL/APR troops entered the camp. Most of the victims were refugees, among them many women and children. Zairian civilians accused by the AFDL/APR troops of having hidden or assisted refugees were also killed. Shortly after the massacre, eyewitnesses confirmed having seen between 20 and 100 bodies in the camp.²⁴⁶

• During the week of 9 December 1996, AFDL/APR soldiers killed several hundred Rwandan refugees at the makeshift camp in the village of Mbeshe Mbeshe in the Katoyi chiefdom. Having surrounded the camp at around five o’clock in the morning, the AFDL/APR soldiers indiscriminately opened fire on the camp’s occupants, killing an unknown number of refugees. According to one source, internally displaced Zairians in the camp were also killed.²⁴⁷

Around 8 November 1996, many refugees, most of them survivors from the Kahindo and Katale camps, settled in the Bashali chiefdom in the north-east of the Masisi territory. Towards 18 November 1996, AFDL/APR soldiers attacked their makeshift camp at Rukwi. Over the weeks and months that followed, they attacked and killed an unknown number of survivors from the camp as they tried to flee the territory. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• In late November 1996, AFDL/APR units killed around fifty civilians, including 40 Rwandan refugees and ten Hutu Banyarwanda,²⁴⁸ in the village of Miandja.²⁴⁹

• In April 1997, AFDL/APR units killed a large number of refugees who had settled on a site known as Karunda in the village of Kirumbu and on the Nyabura plantation in the Bashali-Mokoto chiefdom.²⁵⁰

• Around 22 April 1997, AFDL/APR units killed 53 refugees in a school in the village of Humule, near the town of Karuba, fifty kilometres from Goma. The victims were trying to reach the UNHCR transit centre in Karuba with a view to being repatriated to Rwanda. According to some witnesses, the women among the group of victims were raped before they were killed.²⁵¹

• On 29 May 1997, AFDL/APR units killed four refugees, including a child and an employee of the international NGO Save the Children, in the village of Karuba. The victims were part of a group of refugees on their way to the Karuba UNHCR transit centre with a view to their repatriation to Rwanda.²⁵²