Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER IV. Towards Transition > D. North Kivu

From the end of 2000 the RCD-Goma tried to strengthen its popular base in North Kivu. To this end, it appointed a Hutu Banyarwanda, Eugène Serufuli, as Governor of the province. Serufuli tried to recreate a sense of unity between Tutsi and Hutu Banyarwanda, which had been largely lost since the early 1990s, around the concept of a “Rwandan-speaking” area. In order to break the alliance between the Mayi-Mayi and ex-FAR/Interahamwe and the Hutu armed groups within the FDLR, the Governor offered the Mayi-Mayi a separate peace and recruited massive numbers of Hutu Banyarwanda to the “Local Defence Forces”, which were allied with the ANC/APR soldiers.

In spite of the failure of the “Oracle of the Lord” operation launched by the FDLR against Rwanda in May-June 2001 and the start of the withdrawal of Rwandan soldiers from the province in September 2002, the strategy of the RCD-Goma towards the Mayi-Mayi and Hutu Banyarwanda groups did not have the anticipated impact. Most of the Mayi-Mayi groups, encouraged by the Government in Kinshasa, refused to negotiate with the RCD-Goma and maintained their alliance with the FDLR. In response, the RCD-Goma tried to divide the various Mayi-Mayi groups and offered certain Mayi-Mayi leaders positions within the ANC in return for their collaboration in the war against the groups cooperating with the FDLR. As in the previous period, civilians continued to be targeted by armed groups, against a background of widespread pillaging of natural resources by the various forces involved. Given problems of access to certain areas and a lack of time, the Mapping Team was only able to document a small number of alleged cases, which are described below by way of example.

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

In early November 2002, elements of the ANC killed an unknown number of people from the Hunde ethnic group during an attack on the village of Bushimoo in the Bashali Mokoto groupement, in the Masisi region. The victims had been accused of supporting a group of Mayi-Mayi under the command of a Hunde leader who was collaborating with the FDLR. The ANC had recruited a former member of the Mayi-Mayi group who came from the village and was from the Nyanga ethnic group.⁸⁰⁰

On 3 November 2002, elements of the Mayi-Mayi group under the command of a Hunde leader set fire to several Nyanga villages in the Bashili Mokoto groupement, creating an unknown number of victims.⁸⁰¹

• Between 21 and 23 January 2003, elements of the ANC killed an unknown number of Hunde civilians in the villages of Bushimoo, Kauli and Binyungunyungu in the Bashali Moboto groupement. On 21 January, they opened fire on civilians in the village of Bushimoo. On 22 January, they killed around 15 people on the bridge over the River Osso. On 23 January, they set fire to the villages of Kauli and Binyungunyungu. During the attacks, the soldiers raped at least one woman.⁸⁰²

• On 25 February 2003, elements of the ANC opened fire on the population in the villages of Bushimoo and Kailenge, killing at least 44 people. The killing took place whilst the leaders of the RCD-Goma had asked the local population to come and attend a community meeting, during which the new head of the village of Bushimoo, a former Mayi-Mayi who had joined the ANC, was to be introduced to them.⁸⁰³ 
• In April 2003, elements of the ANC killed five civilians and tortured two women in the forest around the village of Kabusa, around ten kilometres from the town of Walikale. The victims had taken refuge in the forest in order to flee the fighting between the ANC soldiers and Mayi-Mayi elements in the neighbouring village of Biruwe. The soldiers had accused the victims of collaborating with the Mayi-Mayi.⁸⁰⁴ 
• On 26 June 2003, elements of the ANC used bayonets to kill seven inhabitants of the village of Lukweti, which was seen by the soldiers as a Mayi-Mayi fiefdom. The soldiers systematically pillaged the village before they left.⁸⁰⁵

During the period under consideration, the Pygmy or Twa populations in the Beni and Butembo regions were regularly attacked by ANC soldiers and the FDLR. The Pygmies had regularly been accused of collaborating with one or other of the armed groups. It appears, however, that certain violations, such as rape, were motivated by the belief that raping Pygmy women was a remedy for illness. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents.

• In March 2003, elements of the ANC gang-raped an unknown number of Pygmies in the village of Mubambiro, on the edge of the Virunga National Park, around 20 kilometres north of Goma, forced them to suffer cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and detained them arbitrarily. The victims had been accused of collaborating with the FDLR. At the same time, elements of the FDLR also raped Pygmy women from the same village.⁸⁰⁶

• In September 2003, elements of the ANC gang-raped an unknown number of Pygmies in the village of Mudja, on the edge of the Virunga National Park, around 15 kilometres north of Goma, forced them to suffer cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and detained them arbitrarily.⁸⁰⁷

Beni and Lubero regions (Grand-Nord)

In the Beni and Lubero regions controlled by the RCD-ML, fighting continued between the troops from the APC (the armed wing of the RCD-ML) and the UPDF on the one hand and the various Mayi-Mayi groups on the other.

• In 2001, elements of the APC allegedly killed at least five civilians and set fire to houses in the village of Kiantsaba, 15 kilometres from Beni. APC soldiers and the Vurondo Mayi-Mayi had long been in dispute over control of the village.⁸⁰⁸

From 2001, Mayi-Mayi groups and UPDF soldiers, sometimes supported by elements of the APC, engaged in fierce fighting to gain control of the village of Irango, around 20 kilometres from Beni.

• In 2001, elements of the UPDF allegedly killed an unknown number of people in the village of Irango. The victims had been accused of supporting the Mayi-Mayi. The soldiers also raped numerous girls. During the attack, they set fire to and looted several houses.⁸⁰⁹

In the town of Beni, UPDF soldiers instituted a reign of terror for several years with complete impunity. They summarily executed civilians, tortured and arbitrarily detained an unknown number of people, several of them in muddy holes two or three metres deep.

• Throughout 2001, elements of the FDLR are alleged to have terrorised and killed tens of civilians in the region north of Kanyabayonga. Civilian killings were reported, particularly in the villages of Kayna, Mayene, Nyamindo, Kisandja and Kiteka.⁸¹⁰