Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER IV. Towards Transition > F. Maniema

From 2001 onwards, the Mayi-Mayi groups in Maniema stepped up the number of attacks against ANC/APR troops. In response, the ANC/APR set up local self-defence forces made up of young Congolese militiamen. The civilian population was thus forced to side with either one camp or the other and was targeted by the ANC/APR and the Mayi-Mayi.

From February 2001, the Mayi-Mayi and ANC/APR troops fought for control of the village of Kasenga Numbi, 22 kilometres from Kindu. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• In March 2001, elements of the ANC/APR kidnapped five civilians from Kasenga Numbi in the Kailo region and killed them on the basis that they supported the Mayi-Mayi. Two days later, elements of the Mayi-Mayi groups went to the village of Kasenga Numbi and buried a civilian accused of spying for the RCD-Goma alive. Before they buried him, the Mayi-Mayi cut off one of the victim’s ears, forced his wife to fry it and finally, forced him to eat his own flesh.⁸³⁰
• During the night of 3 to 4 July 2001, on the orders of the security committee for the town of Punia chaired by the Administrator for the region, elements of the ANC/APR executed a minerals trader and 12 porters in Punia. The victims had arrived in Punia on 30 June accompanied by two other traders, with a sizeable cargo of coltan and gold and a large quantity of liquid silver. Accused of being spies working on behalf of the Mayi-Mayi, the victims were arrested and held in the central prison known as “Kigali”. Two traders survived and were released after spending two and a half months in prison.⁸³¹
• On 15 September 2001, elements of the ANC/APR bombarded the village of Lubao, in the Kailo region, with heavy weapons, killing six civilians and seriously wounding eight. The attack was intended to chase the Kabambe Mayi-Mayi from Lubao. The latter regained control of the village, however, on the following day. On 10 October 2001, ANC/APR troops launched a fresh attack on the village, killing four civilians and looting property.⁸³²
• In November 2001, elements of the ANC/APR killed at least 12 people in the village of Nyoka, 19 kilometres from Kindu, in the Kailo region. The victims, who had been accused of supporting the Mayi-Mayi, were shot during the night. One person managed to escape. The fate of two civilians arrested at the same time as the victims but who remained in prison on the night of the execution is still unknown.⁸³³
• On 29 December 2001, following a brief incursion by some Mayi-Mayi into the town of Kindu, elements of the ANC/APR killed seven civilians during a search operation in the Basoko neighbourhood.⁸³⁴
• In 2002, in Yumbi, 35 kilometres from Punia, elements of the ANC/APR shot and killed around 20 civilians in retaliation for the killing of the Administrator of the Punia region by elements of the Mayi-Mayi. The victims were killed after ANC/APR forces had chased the Mayi-Mayi from the village.⁸³⁵

• On 17 January 2002, elements of the Mayi-Mayi buried 15 civilians alive in Lubelenge, in the Kailo region. The victims were part of a group of 40 people travelling from Kibombo to Kindu. Having intercepted the group, the Mayi-Mayi separated the women from the men. The 15 men were each forced to dig a grave and were then buried alive in front of the women, many of whom were married to the victims. The 25 women were finally released.⁸³⁶

• In April 2002, elements of the ANC/APR set fire to 64 houses in the village of Makali, 12 kilometres from Kindu, in the Kailo region. The soldiers viewed the village as a Mayi-Mayi stronghold. Shortly before the incident, the convoy of the provincial Governor, escorted by the same members of the ANC/APR, had been attacked by the Mayi-Mayi in the village of Lengwa, nine kilometres from Kindu. Only the church in Makali was spared.⁸³⁷

• In April 2002, in the town of Kasongo, the administrative centre of the region of the same name, elements of the ANC/APR burned alive four members of a Mayi-Mayi group who were out of combat. The victims, who had been captured during Mayi-Mayi attacks on Kasongo, were all tortured and executed at the Palace Hotel.⁸³⁸

In May 2002, there was fighting in the Pangi region between Mayi-Mayi based in Kampene and the ANC/APR troops based in Kasongo.

• In May 2002, elements of the ANC/APR allegedly killed over 50 people in the village of Kitangi, 15 kilometres from Kampene, in the Pangi region. The killing took place after the Mayi-Mayi had been chased from the village by the ANC/APR. Rather than returning directly to Kitangi, the ANC/APR soldiers disguised themselves as Mayi-Mayi combatants. Having observed the enthusiasm with which they were greeted arriving disguised in this way, they arrested a large number of civilians, including some of the villagers as well as simple passers-by, who were rounded up along the roads. Most of the victims were killed by being struck on the back of the neck. In 2003, the villagers found the skulls of over 50 people, only 17 of which were identifiable.⁸³⁹

From 2001 onwards, Mayi-Mayi groups organised a blockade around Kindu in order to hamper the provision of fresh supplies to the ANC and force the APR to leave the town, which created a situation of ongoing food shortages. The people living in the town were accused of supporting the Mayi-Mayi and suffered numerous atrocities at the hands of the ANC/APR/RDF troops and their allies in the local self-defence forces. They were also the victims of frequent attacks by the Mayi-Mayi, many elements of which acted criminally. To counter the blockade, the ANC/RDF⁸⁴⁰ troops launched an operation known as “Kangola Nzela” (Open the Door) above and below Kindu. During the operation, the civilian populations living around Kindu were assumed to be Mayi-Mayi and targeted directly by the soldiers. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• Between 28 August and the first week of September 2002, elements of the ANC/RDF killed over 100 people, including women and children, on the islands of Nyonga and Katangila and in the village of Keko, in the Basongola community in the Kailo region. After one of their canoes had been attacked, the soldiers launched an offensive on the island of Katangila, killing at least 21 civilians, including women and children. Once they had returned to the right bank, the soldiers assembled the civilians from the villages of Hongelo, Okoko, Lubende, Kaseke and Nyonga and took them onto the island of Nyonga. On 30 August, the soldiers separated the men from the women and children and killed around 50 men. Some of the victims were shot, whilst others were killed with pickaxes or machetes. Their bones are still visible in various places on the island. After the killing, the soldiers set fire to numerous villages. The women and children who had been taken to the island of Nyonga were finally taken to Kindu. Over the same period, the ANC/RDF soldiers also arrested numerous civilians in the forests around the village of Keko. Having taken them back to the village, they killed the ten or so men in the group.⁸⁴¹

• Between June and October 2002, elements of Mayi-Mayi groups kidnapped between 200 and 300 people, including women and children, and reduced them to slavery at their camp in Kipala, 29 kilometres from Kindu. They also whipped and killed five civilians with machetes after they refused to work as forced labourers. The victims were held by the Mayi-Mayi for two weeks before being released. Similar cases of kidnapping and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment were observed in the Pangi region. Several dozen civilians, including women and children, were kidnapped from the villages of Avanga and Amikupi and reduced to slavery by the Mayi-Mayi in Mimbite and Lumembe.⁸⁴²

On 30 July 2002, President Kabila and President Kagame entered into an agreement in Pretoria, providing for the withdrawal of the RDF from Congolese territory and the dismantling of the ex-FAR/Interahamwe over a period of 90 days. During the following weeks, Kinshasa prohibited the political activities of the FDLR in the area under its control. Between 17 and 18 September, the RDF left Kindu and the mining town of Kalima. On 19 September, the Mayi-Mayi groups active around Kindu entered into a ceasefire agreement with the leaders of the RCD-Goma, which was immediately welcomed by the population. During the day, however, an isolated incident between Mayi-Mayi elements and ANC soldiers degenerated into several violent incidents. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• From 19 or 20 September 2002, elements of the ANC and their allies in the local self-defence forces killed over 100 civilians in the Brazza neighbourhood in the town of Kindu, mostly around a barrier put up to filter the villagers as they returned from the fields. During the previous months, the Brazza neighbourhood had been the scene of regular confrontations between Mayi-Mayi and ANC/APR/RDF troops. At least 40 bodies were found on boulevard Joseph Kabila and over 70 on the road to Lwama.⁸⁴³

• Between September and October 2002, elements of the ANC and their allies in the local self-defence forces executed 20 civilians, including a baby and young schoolchildren, in the municipality of Alunguli in the town of Kindu. The victims were travelling into the centre of Kindu, having learnt that the Mayi-Mayi and the RCD had agreed a ceasefire. They were intercepted at the Alunguli barrier and executed with edged weapons on the grounds that they were collaborating with the Mayi-Mayi. Two mass graves containing 9 and 11 bodies were discovered in the municipality in 2007.⁸⁴⁴
• On 22 September 2002, elements of the ANC and their allies in the local self-defence forces killed seven civilians during a search operation in the Tokolote neighbourhood in the town of Kindu. Five of the victims were arrested at their homes during the night and executed on the grounds that they were collaborating with the Mayi-Mayi. In 2006, the local population discovered the mass grave that contained their bodies. A file on the case was opened in 2004 at the Military Prosecutor’s office but no trial has ever taken place.⁸⁴⁵
• On 25 September 2002, elements of the ANC killed 19 civilians, including women and children, in the Church of the Apostles in the village of Songwe, 24 kilometres south of Kindu, in the Kailo region. The victims had been accused by the soldiers of being Mayi-Mayi. Thirteen civilians managed to escape but the others were shot dead inside the church itself. The victims’ bodies were buried by the villagers in five mass graves.⁸⁴⁶
• Also on 25 September 2002, elements of the ANC killed 22 civilians, including women and children, in the villages of Katalama and Mongali, 14 kilometres from Kindu. The killings took place after the ANC had chased the Mayi-Mayi from these villages. In Katalama, ANC soldiers found six women hiding in their houses, who agreed to help them flush the other villagers out of their hiding places. The soldiers then told the 17 civilians to gather for a census and shot them dead. In the neighbouring village of Mongali, the ANC troops found five civilians, whom they accused of collaborating with the Mayi-Mayi and killed.⁸⁴⁷
• Towards the end of 2002 and in early 2003, elements of the ANC occupying the town of Kibombo, 110 kilometres south of Kindu, executed at least 37 civilians suspected of supporting the Mayi-Mayi in the surrounding fields. The civilian population was seen as colluding with the enemy by both camps. The victims were killed in Kibombo by an ANC firing squad and their bodies thrown into two wells in the Kawelo neighbourhood (30 bodies) and the police district (seven bodies).⁸⁴⁸
• In early 2003, elements of the ANC from Kimbolo looted the village of Lubelenge and set fire to over 100 houses as well as places of worship (the United Methodist church, the Catholic church and the mosque) and health centres. The soldiers were trying to clear the Mayi-Mayi from the main road between Kibombo and Kindu as part of the “Kangola Nzela” (Open the Door) operation. Lubelenge was the headquarters of a Mayi-Mayi group that regularly attacked ANC soldiers along this road.⁸⁴⁹

• Between 2001 and 2003, Mayi-Mayi raped a large number of women of all ages in the town of Kindu and the surrounding area. Between 2002 and 2003, for example, 238 cases of rape were recorded in the village of Lubelenge alone. The victims were mostly attacked when they were leaving the town to get fresh food supplies during the blockade in Kindu. Many women were also kidnapped and used for several months or even a year as sex slaves in the Mayi-Mayi camps. Cases of rape involving ANC/APR soldiers were also recorded, but in smaller numbers.⁸⁵⁰

• Between 2002 and the first quarter of 2003, Mayi-Mayi elements kidnapped, raped and used hundreds of women from Kalima and the surrounding area, in the Pangi region, as sex slaves. Most of the victims were kidnapped while they were on their way to Kamakozi, in the Kailo region, to till their fields there. They were often taken to the villages of Amisi and Kamakozi, where the Mayi-Mayi had their bases. The Mayi-Mayi also often kidnapped men, whom they then used for forced labour. Some women remained in the Mayi-Mayi camps for several days and others for several months. All of them were raped on a daily basis by several men and subjected to all kinds of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.⁸⁵¹

• Between 1999 and 2003, elements of the Mayi-Mayi and ANC/APR raped over 2,500 women in the communities of Maringa, Mulu and Bakwange in the Kasongo region alone. Most of the victims were attacked when they were out looking for food or doing domestic chores. When the Mayi-Mayi took control of a village that had previously been occupied by the ANC/APR, they often forced members of the same family suspected of having cooperated with the RCD-Goma to have incestuous sexual relations in public. When they carried out a rape, the Mayi-Mayi forced the men in the victim’s family to witness it.⁸⁵²

These figures are given by way of example and are likely to represent only a fraction of what happened in reality. As in the other provinces, many places are still inaccessible; sometimes victims and witnesses did not survive the violations or are still ashamed to speak about them. When they did survive rape, women were generally rejected by their husbands and families instead of being supported by their communities.