Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER III. The Second War > B. Attacks on other civilian populations > 8. Kasaï Occidental

Between March and July 1999, ANC/APR soldiers launched a vast offensive to take control of the provinces of Eastern and Kasai Occidental. In April, they captured the areas of Lodja and Lubefu, and the FAC fled towards Kananga, committing numerous atrocities and looting as they went. Between May and June, FAC and ZDF soldiers entered into violent confrontations with ANC/APR troops for the control of the Demba and Dimbelenge regions, north of Kanaga. People on both sides of the front line were subjected to numerous atrocities. Given the land-locked nature of the region and the lack of time, the Mapping Team was only able to document a limited number of incidents, which are reported below as representative of the violations committed during this period.

Having conquered and then lost the town on several occasions, ANC/APR soldiers finally took control of Dimbelenge on 30 June 1999. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• During the course of June 1999, elements of the FAC killed at least 36 civilians, including women, children and the President of the local Red Cross in the centre of the town of Dimbelenge, in the Lulua district. The killings took place after control of the town was temporarily regained by the FAC. The victims had been accused by the FAC of having collaborated with ANC/APR soldiers. Initially, the FAC locked all the inhabitants in a church, with the intention of killing them. An FAC soldier, however, who was later executed for his actions, opened the door of the church, allowing most of the inhabitants to escape. The soldiers set fire to numerous houses in the town before they left.⁶²⁰

• In June 1999, elements of the FAC based in Bibumba killed four civilians in Kankole, 32 kilometres from Katende, in the Dimbelenge region. The village had been occupied for a time by ANC/APR soldiers.⁶²¹

In spite of the signature of the Lusaka Agreement in July 1999,⁶²² the ceasefire never came into effect. In September 1999 and March 2000, the ANC/APR launched several unsuccessful offensives in order to take control of the whole province. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• In September 1999, elements of the FAC killed at least 23 civilians, including women and children, in Kabinda Mukole in the Demba region. The FAC, coming from their base in Bena Leka, seven kilometres from Kabinda Mukole, had gone to the village to dislodge the ANC/APR soldiers there. Once they realised that the latter had already left, the FAC turned their attention to the civilians, whom they accused of having given shelter to ANC/APR soldiers. Before they left, they looted property and set fire to large numbers of houses.⁶²³
• Between September and October 1999, elements of the FAC killed three civilians, raped at least 13 women and subjected an unknown number of civilians to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in the town of Bena Leka in the Demba region.⁶²⁴

• In September 1999, elements of the ANC/APR based in Katende killed four civilians, including the traditional chief of the village, in Tshinseleke, in the Dimbelenge region. The chief had been accused by a rival of storing weapons. The three other victims were blown up by mines after ANC/APR soldiers forced them to march across a minefield in front of their column.⁶²⁵

• In May 2000, elements of the FAC killed at least seven civilians in Bibumba, in the Demba region. Victims were executed for having protested against the atrocities and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment inflicted by the FAC on the civilian population. According to witnesses, over the course of the period the FAC killed an unknown number of civilians in the neighbouring forest.⁶²⁶