Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER III. The Second War > B. Attacks on other civilian populations > 3. North Kivu

City of Goma, Masisi, Rutshuru, Walikale and Nyiragongo regions (Petit-Nord)

On 2 August 1998, General Sylvain Buki read out a communiqué on Radio-télévision nationale congolaise (RTNC) [Congolese national television and radio] in Goma, announcing that a rebellion has broken out within the FAC. All the troops in the 10th Brigade of the FAC mutinied and the city of Goma fell into the hands of the ANC and APR without any real fighting. Goma thus remained out of reach of the forces of the Government of Kinshasa for almost the whole period, i.e. between August 1998 and January 2001, with the FAC managing to bombard the city on one occasion.

• On 11 May 1999, an FAC aircraft is said to have bombarded several neighbourhoods and municipalities in Goma, killing and wounding around ten civilians, primarily in the Mukosasenge neighbourhood of the municipality of Karisimbi.⁵²²

During the campaigns in North Kivu, however, the bias of the RCD towards the local Tutsi community, the interference by Rwanda in the management of the province and the brutality of the ANC and APR troops towards civilians prompted numerous people in North Kivu to join the Mayi-Mayi armed groups. The latter formed an alliance with the ex-FAR/Interahamwe and the Hutu armed elements that had joined forces within the ALiR from the end of 1997, and stepped up the number of attacks against ANC/APR troops by using the forests in the Walikale and Masisi regions and the Virunga National Park as support bases.

With financial support and arms supplied by the Government in Kinshasa, the Mayi-Mayi and ALiR groups stepped up the number of ambushes of ANC/APR soldiers and committed acts of pillaging against the civilian populations. As a result of their activism, the ANC/APR soldiers were only able to control part of the urban areas. In light of this situation, they stepped up their search operations in the Masisi, Rutshuru and Walikale regions. Numerous civilians were targeted based on their ethnicity, with the Hutu Banyarwanda systematically accused of supporting the ALiR and the Hunde, Nyanga and Tembo of collaborating with the Mayi-Mayi groups. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• During the course of August 1998, ANC/APR soldiers killed an unknown number of Hutu Banyarwanda in the Tanda area in the Rutshuru region. The killings took place during a military operation directed at elements of the ALiR operating in the region.⁵²³

• On 25 February 1999, elements of the ANC/APR stormed the marketplace in Lukweti, in the Masisi region, opened fire and killed 45 people, all civilians.⁵²⁴

• Around 8 August 1999, elements of the ANC/APR killed at least 17 civilians in the village of Otobora in the Walikale region. Shortly before the massacre, there had been violent fighting between the Mayi-Mayi and ANC/APR troops based in Bunyakiri, in South Kivu. Most of the victims were displaced persons from the neighbouring village of Hombo.⁵²⁵
• On 12 August 1999, elements of the ANC/APR killed at least 44 civilians, a majority of them women and children of Tembo ethnicity, in the village of Miano in the Masisi region. They also mutilated an unknown number of people and destroyed the local health centre. Most of the victims were killed on the basis of their ethnic origin, with Tembos often assumed to be part of the Mayi-Mayi groups fighting the ANC/APR troops in the region.⁵²⁶
• Around 23 November 1999, elements of the ANC/APR killed an unknown number of civilians in the village of Ngenge in the Walikale region, indiscriminately opening fire on residents. On 24 November, ANC/APR soldiers beat a group of senior figures in the village to death. The same soldiers killed civilians in the neighbouring villages of Kangati and Kaliki.⁵²⁷

• On 5 February 2000, elements of the ANC/APR massacred at least 30 people in the village of Kilambo in the Masisi region. A local NGO identified 27 victims. According to several witnesses, other massacres are thought to have taken place at the same time near Kilambo, taking the total number of victims to almost 60.⁵²⁸

During this period, members of the ALiR also attacked civilians in the territories of Walikale and Masisi. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• In January 2000, elements of the ALiR killed around 100 civilians in the village of Luke and the surrounding area. Members of the militia had accused the victims of collaborating with ANC/APR forces. Most of the victims are thought to have been killed with machetes or shot. Members of the militia also pillaged the village.⁵²⁹

• On 9 July 2000, elements of the ALiR killed between 34 and 42 civilians during an attack on a displaced persons’ camp in Sake. Most of the victims, the majority of whom were of Hunde and Tembo ethnicity, were women and children.⁵³⁰

Beni and Lubero regions (Grand-Nord)

On 7 August 1998, the UPDF took unopposed control of the town of Beni and the surrounding region. During the following months, however, numerous local young people joined the Mayi-Mayi groups operating in the Beni and Lubero regions. With financial support and weapons provided by the Government in Kinshasa, these Mayi-Mayi groups increased in strength and stepped up the number of attacks against the UPDF military convoys travelling between Beni and Butembo and in an area to the north-west of the two towns. On 14 November 1999, Mayi-Mayi combatants attacked Ugandan troops in Beni, killing several soldiers and a UPDF colonel.

The Mayi-Mayi groups in Grand-Nord quickly began to fight due to rivalry for the control of the region’s agro-pastoral and mining resources and local control over peace negotiations. Violent confrontations broke out between the Vurondo Mayi-Mayi of Chief Lolwako Poko Poko and those of Chief Mudohu.

In 2000, the attempts made by the RCD-ML to regain control of the Vurondo Mayi-Mayi and incorporate them in the Armée patriotique congolaise (APC), the armed wing of the RCD-ML, failed and led to further incidents. In August, the Vurondo Mayi-Mayi, who had been brought to Lubero by the APR for a military training course run by UPDF troops, rebelled.

• On 25 and 26 August 2000, confrontations between the Vurondo Mayi-Mayi and APC/UPDF troops in the village of Lubero reportedly resulted in tens of deaths among the Mayi-Mayi and an unknown number of civilian victims. Some sources suggest that 17 civilians were killed and seven Mayi-Mayi prisoners summarily executed.⁵³¹

Following these incidents, the Mayi-Mayi restarted and intensified their attacks on UPDF convoys between Beni and Butembo. In retaliation, the UPDF forces led operations against villages suspected of sheltering Mayi-Mayi groups. UPDF soldiers often made disproportionate use of force during these attacks, killing combatants and civilians indiscriminately.

On 1 November 2000, UPDF soldiers allegedly killed between seven and eleven people during an attack on the population of the villages of Maboya and Loya, 16 kilometres north of the town of Butembo. A few hours before the attack, four UPDF soldiers had been killed by Vurondo Mayi-Mayi during an ambush close to the village of Maboya. During the afternoon, UPDF soldiers apparently launched an indiscriminate attack on the inhabitants of both villages and set 43 houses on fire. Some victims were shot and killed, whilst others were burned alive.⁵³²

On 8 November 2000, close to the village of Butuhe, 10 kilometres north of Butembo, Vurondo Mayi-Mayi attacked a UPDF convoy that was escorting lorries transporting minerals.

• On 9 November 2000, UPDF soldiers are alleged to have killed indiscriminately 36 people in the village of Kikere, close to Butuhe, north of Butembo. The soldiers fired blindly on civilians using rifles and rocket-launchers. Some civilians died as a result of being burned alive in their homes. The soldiers also systematically killed domestic animals and destroyed civilian property.⁵³³

In the town of Beni, UPDF soldiers instituted a reign of terror for several years with complete impunity. They carried out summary executions of civilians, arbitrarily detained large numbers of people and subjected them to torture and various other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments. They also introduced a particularly cruel form of detention, putting the detainees in holes dug two or three metres deep into the ground, where they were forced to live exposed to bad weather, with no sanitation and on muddy ground.

• In March 2000, UPDF soldiers allegedly killed four civilians and wounded several others in the town of Beni during an operation to quell a demonstration. The victims had been protesting against the murder of a woman, the arbitrary arrest of her husband and the pillaging of their house, committed a few days earlier by UPDF soldiers.⁵³⁴

During the period under consideration, UPDF soldiers carried out several operations against an armed group of Ugandan origin, the ADF-NALU (Allied Democratic Forces–National Army for the Liberation of Uganda⁵³⁵) based in the Ruwenzori massif in the Beni region. For their part, ADF-NALU carried out attacks on villages in the Ruwenzori region, kidnapping numerous civilians and pillaging their property. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• In 2000, north of Beni, elements from the ADF-NALU killed, kidnapped and reduced to slavery hundreds of civilians and forcibly recruited children on a large scale. In January, for example, they kidnapped over 100 people in Mutwanga, in the Beni region. In April, they attacked villages in the area around Mutwanga, killing an unknown number of civilians and kidnapping hundreds. Members of the militia also kidnapped tens of minors and used them as sex slaves for several years.⁵³⁶

• Also in 2000, elements of the ADF-NALU killed and kidnapped an unknown number of civilians in the town of Bulongo, at the foot of the Ruwenzori massif. The people they kidnapped were forced to carry the property pillaged from the town over long distances. During these forced marches, which could last several weeks, numerous civilians died of exhaustion or were executed. The ADF-NALU kept the survivors in their camp. They forcibly enlisted men and boys and used women and girls as domestic servants and sex slaves. Most of the victims suffered from malnutrition and were subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Many died in detention. Some victims managed to escape but still suffer severe after-effects.⁵³⁷