Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER III. The Second War > B. Attacks on other civilian populations > 9. Katanga

During the second half of 1998, ANC/APR troops launched an offensive to take control of North Katanga. On 26 August, they took control of the town of Kalemie, in the district of Tanganyika. A week later, elements of the FAC and groups of “Volunteers”⁶²⁷ launched a counter-attack, but without success.

• On 3 September 1998, during the course of their attack on Kalemie, elements of the FAC and “Volunteers” allegedly summarily executed around 15 ANC/APR soldiers who were out of combat. Six of them were burned alive in the middle of the street. The FAC also killed six ANC/APR soldiers being treated at the General Hospital in Kalemie and a member of the medical staff (a nurse). An unknown number of civilians, the majority of them victims of stray bullets, died during the confrontations.⁶²⁸

The ANC/APR troops regained control of Kalemie on 4 September 1998 and conducted search operations for two days.

• Between 4 and 5 September 1998, elements of the ANC/APR arrested several dozen men in Kalemie, including “Volunteers” who had laid down their weapons and civilian non-combatants. Reportedly, some of them were killed immediately at various locations in the town, in particular avenue Lambo and avenue Maila and at the Catholic church in Lubuye. Around 60 men were taken first to military prisons and then to the central prison. After three days, several dozen of them  were taken out of the prison and summarily executed on a bridge over the River Lukuga. In total, the ANC/APR soldiers killed at least 84 people.⁶²⁹

After Kalemie had been taken back, the town became the principal logistics base for the ANC/APR in Katanga. Over the course of the following months and years, aircraft from the ZDF, which was allied to the FAC, bombarded the town on several occasions. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• From 1998 to 2003, ZDF soldiers carried out a number of raids on the town of Kalemie, causing the deaths of at least 25 civilians and wounding 13. The raids also destroyed numerous buildings.⁶³⁰
• In December 1998, elements of the ANC/APR summarily executed five civilians in the village of Kasenga, in the Manda community in the Moba region. The victims had been accused of collaborating with the FAC based in the chiefdom of Mutumbala. Three bodies were thrown into a ditch. Before they left, the soldiers set fire to several hundred houses and destroyed civilian property.⁶³¹
• On 27 January 1999, three aircraft and a helicopter from the ZDF dropped several bombs on the town of Nyunzu, killing at least 14 civilians and wounding an unknown number of them. The bombings, which targeted ANC/APR positions, also destroyed large amounts of civilian property.⁶³²

Starting in February 1999, the ANC/APR launched a major offensive in order to take control of the Kongolo, Kabalo, Moba, Nyunzu, Manono and Malemba Nkulu regions. President Kabila brought ex-FAR/Interahamwe and Hutu combatants under the control of the ALiR into the area to support the FAC/ZDF/FDD already operating there, in the hope of blocking their advance. He also encouraged the formation, throughout the whole of Katanga, of civil self-defence militias or Forces d’autodéfense populaires (FAP) [local self-defence forces]; in rural areas, these took the form of Mayi-Mayi groups similar to those operating in North and South Kivu. During the period under consideration, the population of northern and central Katanga was taken hostage by different armed groups. The ANC/APR troops and to a lesser extent, those of the ALiR, FDD and Mayi-Mayi systematically massacred civilians suspected of collaborating with their respective enemies. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

Kabalo region

• On 2 February 1999, elements of the ANC/APR killed between nine and eleven civilians, including children, in the village of Kadimbu-Tambo in the Luela-Luvunguyi community, 20 kilometres from Kabalo. They set fire to several houses prior to leaving the village. The soldiers had accused the inhabitants of collaborating with the Mayi-Mayi.⁶³³

• In early April 1999, elements of the ANC/APR based in Kabalo massacred at least 28 civilians in the villages of Kalanda, Kahompwa and Kakuyu, 95 kilometres from Kabalo. They killed several civilians in Kalanda, including the chief of Kahompwa. The inhabitants of Kalanda and Kahompwa who were able to escape took refuge in Kakuyu, where the FAC/ZDF soldiers were stationed. On 4 April, however, the FAC/ZDF fled and elements of the ANC/APR entered the village and killed the inhabitants, accusing them “of being Luba and brothers of President Kabila.”⁶³⁴

• Starting on 4 April 1999 and over the following two weeks, elements of the ANC/APR massacred over 40 civilians, including women and children, in the villages of Ngoma, Kabamba, Pofu, Lwama, Rudisha, Mukila, Kiluwe, Kabambale and Ndala in the Munga groupement, in the Kabalo region. One case of rape and cases of bodily mutilation were also reported. The soldiers also engaged in pillaging and destroyed large amounts of civilian property. The victims had been accused of helping the Mufu 3 Mayi-Mayi group.⁶³⁵

• On 1 June 1999, elements of the ANC/APR massacred at least 23 civilians in the village of Mbayo in the chiefdom of Luela Luvunguyi, in the Kabalo region. The victims had gone to buy food in the government zone. The ANC/APR soldiers ambushed them and accused them of collaborating with the FAC based in the village of Nguena. Having subjected them to interrogation, they executed them by shooting them or beating them with hammers before throwing their bodies into a mass grave. It seems that elements of the ANC/APR operating in the Mbayo area committed numerous instances of these types of violation against civilians.⁶³⁶

• In June 1999, elements of the FAC killed more than 50 civilians in the village of Kitule and the surrounding area, in the Lukuswa area of the Kabalo region. The village had been under ANC/APR control for several months. When they regained control of the village, the FAC killed at least 41 civilians, including representatives of the RCD-Goma and their families. The FAC then forced some 40 civilians to transport the property pillaged in Kitule to the village of Kyoto. Around ten of these civilians managed to escape, but the others have been recorded as missing since that time.⁶³⁷

• In July 1999, elements of the ANC/APR based in Boya killed at least 15 civilians in the village of Kabango in the Lwena Luvunguyi community, in the Kabalo region. They also looted civilian property and set fire to the village. The victims were arrested when they tried to return home, having fled from Kabango two days earlier following an attack by the FAC on their village. The victims had been accused of spying on behalf of the FAC.⁶³⁸

• On a Sunday in 2000,⁶³⁹ elements of the ANC/APR summarily executed at least 11 civilians at the side of the road between Kabalo and Kakuyu, in the Kabalo region. The victims were from the village of Mulonga in the Luela-Luvunguyi community, in the Kabalo region. The soldiers were looking for members of the FAC who had laid a mine on the main road and caused the deaths of several of their comrades. The ANC/APR soldiers called the population in Mulonga together and arrested 12 young men whose haircuts or the gun marks on their shoulders gave the impression that they were FAC soldiers. They then forced them to follow them for over 20 kilometres before killing 11 of them (one of them managed to escape). The victims’ bodies were thrown into a mass grave at the side of the road.⁶⁴⁰

Moba region

• On 4 March 1999, elements of the ANC/APR killed 84 civilians in the village of Lyapenda in the Manda community, in the Moba region. Accused of having collaborated with the FAC who had controlled the village until that point, the victims were locked in two houses and then burned alive. Anyone who tried to escape was shot dead.⁶⁴¹
• On 4 June 1999, elements of the ANC/APR killed at least 22 civilians in the village of Katwe in the Kapungo groupement, in the Moba region. The victims were locked in a house and then burned alive. The soldiers also committed rapes. The attack on Katwe took place after an ANC/APR officer was wounded by a mine exploding on the main road between Nyembe and Pepa.⁶⁴²
• On 3 July 1999, elements of the ANC/APR killed 48 civilians in the village of Mazembe in the Manda community, in the Moba region. The massacre took place after a vehicle transporting ANC/APR troops was blown up by a mine not far from the village of Lyapenda. Having accused the civilians there of giving information to the FAC and FDD operating in the region, the ANC/APR soldiers locked them in huts and set fire to them. Most of the victims worked for the livestock breeding company ELYGMA but there were also around ten children among them. Some of the victims were shot rather than being burned alive. The fire started by the soldiers also destroyed ELGYMA’s buildings.⁶⁴³
• In July 1999, elements of the ANC/APR killed at least ten civilians in Katimbe, a village close to Kasanga, in the chiefdom of Kayabala, in the Moba region. When they arrived in the village, the soldiers assembled the civilians and accused them of helping the FAC by providing them with food. They shot anyone who tried to escape and then assembled the civilians in a house and set fire to it. The village was burnt to the ground.⁶⁴⁴

Kongolo

• Between March and November 1999, in the village of Sola, 30 kilometres north of Kongolo and its surrounding area, members of the Mayi-Mayi killed at least eight civilians. The Mayi-Mayi had regained control of Sola in March. Accused of having supported the ANC/APR, the victims were executed following a travesty of a trial before the head medicine man. Most were tortured and mutilated to death in front of the people. The medicine man used certain parts of the body (lips, nose, ears, genitals, buttock and part of the thorax) to make charms that were supposed to protect the Mayi-Mayi from bullets. Witnesses were able to give the names of eight victims, but the real number of those tortured is probably much higher.⁶⁴⁵

In March 1999, the Mufu 3 Mayi-Mayi succeeded in regaining control of the town of Kongolo for three days. As they retreated, they dispersed into the Munga groupement. In April, the ANC/APR launched a military operation in the groupement in order to neutralise the Mayi-Mayi. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• On 21 April 1999, elements of the ANC/APR massacred 58 people, including civilians and Mayi-Mayi, in the village of Kasanga in the Mohona community. The soldiers were trying to get to Nonge, where the Mufu 3 Mayi-Mayi leader had set up his headquarters. When they arrived in Kasanga, where the Mufu 3 Mayi-Mayi had a small base, someone allegedly fired into the air to alert the inhabitants. The ANC/APR soldiers immediately opened fire on the population, indiscriminately killing Mayi-Mayi who were out of combat as well as civilians, including a child. Elements of the ANC/APR also pillaged and set fire to the village before moving on to Nonge.⁶⁴⁶

• Also on 21 April 1999, elements of the ANC/APR killed at least 17 civilians and set fire to part of the village of Nonge in the Mohona community, in the Kongolo region. Nonge was the headquarters of the Mufu 3 but most of the Mayi-Mayi had fled the village before the soldiers arrived.⁶⁴⁷

• On 9 May 1999, ANC/APR soldiers coming from Kongolo massacred at least 125 civilians, including large numbers of children, in the village of Tubundu, six kilometres from Makutano, in the Mambwe community in the Kongolo region. The ANC/APR soldiers were looking for the chief of the Mambwe community, whom they had accused of collaborating with the Mayi-Mayi. Having failed tofind him, they killed the chief of Tubundu, the medicine man and members of his family. They subsequently assembled the civilians in the centre of the village and opened fire. The soldiers set fire to the village before they left. Two weeks later, the victims’ bodies were buried in mass graves with the help of the Red Cross. The village was rebuilt on another site nearby.⁶⁴⁸

From May 1999 onwards, during their operations against the Mayi-Mayi in the region, ANC/APR soldiers killed numerous civilians in the Yambula community, in the Kongolo region. They also looted and set fire to over 20 villages. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• In Nungu, on 12 May 1999, elements of the ANC/APR surprised villagers meeting at the home of the village chief and opened fire, killing 14 civilians. The victims had been accused of meeting to help the Mayi-Mayi. In May, the soldiers looted and set fire to the villages of Mwana Kasongo, Nungu, Kwenze, Mayenze, Tuta, Kaulo, Mwana Tambwe, Ngamba and Toileti. In November, they killed at least two civilians in Imba and one in Mukoko and set fire to numerous villages including Imba 1, Imba 2, Imba 3, Kalawa, Mesu, Kabenge, Muti, Mukoko, Kilongo, Seba and Himba.⁶⁴⁹
• On 23 March 2000, elements of the ANC/APR executed five civilians at Moza Block 1, 20 kilometres from Kongolo. The victims had been accused of collaborating with the Mayi-Mayi.⁶⁵⁰
• On 23 March 2000, elements of the ANC/APR killed 34 unarmed civilians and wounded one in Moza, a village in the Bayashi community in the Kongolo region. Having been arrested by an ANC/APR patrol, the victims were accused of collaborating with the Mayi-Mayi. They were then locked in a house and burned alive. Anyone who tried to escape was shot dead, except for two civilians who survived the killing.⁶⁵¹
• On 10 October 2000, elements of the ANC/APR burned 11 civilians alive in the village of Nindila, in the area around Sola, 30 kilometres north of Kongolo. The victims were part of the group of villagers who had responded to the call by the ANC/APR soldiers to assemble in the village square. Having accused the victims of collaborating with the Mayi-Mayi, the ANC/APR soldiers locked them in a thatched hut and set fire to it. In early October 2000, the Mayi-Mayi in Sola had ambushed and killed an ANC/APR commander.⁶⁵²

Nyunzu

The Nyunzu region was under the control of ANC/APR troops. From April 1999 onwards, Mayi-Mayi allied to elements of the ALiR tried to chase elements of the ANC/APR out of the community of Nord-Lukuga. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• In April 1999, elements of the ALiR set fire to the villages of Sulumba, Lwazi, Mpende and Mufunqwa in the community of Nord-Lukuga, in the Nyunzu region. Members of the militia had accused the inhabitants of these villages of collaborating with elements of the ANC/APR based in Lengwe.⁶⁵³

• During the first half of 1999, the Mayi-Mayi burned the village of Lengwe and killed seven civilians in Katuko.⁶⁵⁴

• In January 2000, elements of the ANC/APR killed several tens of civilians, including women and children, in the village of Makele in the community of Sud-Lukuga, in the Nyunzu region. Some of the victims were shot, others killed with edged weapons and others burned alive in their houses. Several of those who tried to escape were drowned crossing the River Lweyeye. The names of 51 victims were able to be identified, amongst them the Mayi-Mayi leader Kapata. The ANC/APR soldiers also pillaged civilian property and set fire to the village before withdrawing. After the arrival of the ANC/APR in the region, at the end of 1998, Makele had provided shelter for numerous displaced people from Mulongo and Mabilibili and was also used as a base for the Mayi-Mayi groups in the region. The ANC/APR made no distinction between civilians and the Mayi-Mayi during their attack. The village has not been rebuilt.⁶⁵⁵
• On 27 February 2000, elements of the ANC/APR killed 12 pygmies (four civilians and eight ex-Mayi-Mayi who had laid down their weapons) in the village of Nyemba, 39 kilometres from Nyunzu, in the community of Nord-Lukuga. The execution took place whilst the ex-Mayi-Mayi victims were being transferred to the ANC/APR base in Kabeya Mayi, 34 kilometres from Nyunzu. These Mayi-Mayi had long been in conflict with the ANC/APR and were collaborating with elements of the ALiR. Since 2000, the authorities of the RCD-Goma had managed to persuade the Mayi-Mayi in the area to lay down their weapons.⁶⁵⁶

• On 5 March 2000, pygmy Mayi-Mayi, including survivors of the killing in Nyemba on 27 February 2000, attacked the village of Mpende, in the community of Nord-Kukuga, killing nine civilians and wounding six with poisoned arrows. These Mayi-Mayi from Kitengetenge and their leader Katengu had accused the inhabitants of Mpende of having helped the ANC/APR to kill ex-Mayi-Mayi pygmies a few days earlier. The Mayi-Mayi also set fire to several houses in the village during the attack.⁶⁵⁷

• In May 2000, elements of the ANC/APR killed 11 civilians, including a woman and child, in the villages of Misimbe and Makuikui in the community of Nord-Lukuga. The killing took place two kilometres from the village of Mpende after the Mayi-Mayi had ambushed elements of the ANC/APR based in Lengwe and Kabeya-Mayi. After several exchanges of fire, the Mayi-Mayi fled but elements of the ANC/APR followed them into the villages of Misimbe and Makuikui, where they fired on civilians.⁶⁵⁸

• On 10 July 2000, in Kalundu, in the community of Nord-Lukuga, elements of the ALiR killed two civilians, including the chief of the village, who had refused to accompany them.⁶⁵⁹

• In October 2000, elements of the ANC killed four civilians, including a child, in the village of Bulolo in the Sud-Lukuga area, in the Nyunzu region. The victims had gone to harvest manioc in their fields in the village of Bwana when they were arrested by an ANC/APR patrol. The victims were taken to Bulolo and killed with edged weapons; their bodies were then burnt.⁶⁶⁰
• On 15 November 2000, Mayi-Mayi killed three civilians, including the chief of the village, and wounded one in Kilya after the villagers had gone to complain to the captain in charge of the ANC/APR soldiers in Nyunzu about a rape committed by the Mayi-Mayi.⁶⁶¹
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• On 3 December 2000, elements of the ANC/APR killed between 12 and 16 civilians, including at least two children, in Kasandwe, 14 kilometres from Nyunzu. The soldiers were looking for the members of the ALiR who, the day before, had killed a civilian accused of collaborating with the ANC/APR in the village of Pilipili, seven kilometres from Nyunzu. Having failed to find the ALiR involved in the killing, the soldiers went on to Kasandwe. Having accused the local population of collaborating with the members of the ALiR, they killed the civilians with sticks and edged weapons and then burned the victims’ bodies.⁶⁶²
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• On 12 December 2000, elements of the ALiR killed three civilians in the village of Kalenge, eight kilometres from Nyunzu. The members of the militia had criticised the victims for having provided the ANC/APR soldiers with information on their military positions.⁶⁶³
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• During the night of 12 to 13 January 2001, Mayi-Mayi and elements of the ALiR killed between five and seven civilians in the village of Lipenda and the bivouac in Nathanali, six kilometres from Nyunzu. The Mayi-Mayi based in Lukunde had accused the victims of having sheltered elements of the ANC/APR in their homes and given them palm wine.⁶⁶⁴
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• On 23 January 2001, elements of the ALiR accompanied by pygmy Mayi-Mayi killed seven men and stripped 20 women in the area around the village of Biengele, two kilometres from Nyunzu, on the main road to Kongolo. The assailants had accused the victims of having given food to the ANC/APR troops.⁶⁶⁵

Malemba Nkulu

• During the night of 19 to 20 July 1999, elements of the ANC/APR killed at least 11 civilians, including seven children, in the village of Kasala in the chiefdom of Museka, in the Malemba Nkulu region. On their arrival in Kasala, the soldiers threatened the occupants of a house that they would kill them if they did not give them money. They then set fire to the house and shot the occupants. Seven civilians, including four children, died the same day. Three children aged 4, 6 and 8 years were seriously burned and died a few days later.⁶⁶⁶
• Between 1999 and 2001, elements of the ANC/APR killed at least 52 civilians in Mulongo, in the Malemba Nkulu region. The people surprised when they crossed the River Congo to get to the left bank, occupied by the FAC, and the Mayi-Mayi on the right bank, controlled by the ANC/APR, had been accused of being Mayi-Mayi and were systematically killed. The bodies of some of the victims were thrown into wells.⁶⁶⁷
• On 24 November 2000, elements of the FAC summarily executed nine people, including one of the founders of the AFDL, Commander Anselme Masasu. Arrested in Kinshasa at the end of October, the victims were held for over two weeks in the GLM building in Kinshasa in cruel, inhuman or degrading conditions. On 21 November, accompanied by around 40 other people accused of preparing a coup d’état against President Kabila, they were transferred to ANR prisons in Lubumbashi. On 22 November, the victims and other accused were taken to the village of Cantonnier, about 20 kilometres from the town. Having been condemned to death at the end of a summary trial by the Military Court sitting in Cantonnier specifically for this purpose, the victims were shot. Following the publication of a press release about the case by the ASADHO on 2 December, several human rights activists were arrested in early 2001. The ASADHO’s senior official in Katanga was arbitrarily detained and tortured for several months in the GLM building.⁶⁶⁸