The United Nations has cautioned that the widespread and systematic killings, beheadings, rape and other barbaric acts by some militia mostly from the ethnic Lendu community in northeastern Congo may constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In the six months to April 2020, at least 296 people were killed, 151 wounded and 38 raped, including women and children, mostly by fighters linked to the CODECO rebel group, said a report by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) on Wednesday.
CODECO’s fighters are drawn from the Lendu ethnic group.
Rich in natural resources including gold, diamonds, oil and coltan, the Ituri province in northeast Congo was the site of some of the country’s worst fighting between 1999 and 2007, after a power struggle between rebel groups descended into ethnic violence, mostly between the Hema and Lendu communities.
After years of relative calm, tit-for-tat fighting erupted again in Dec. 2017, reviving longstanding tensions over land.
The recent attacks against civilians not only targeted the Hema and Alur communities, but included communities previously spared, UNJRHO report said. The raids intensified from March this year, particularly around artisanal mining sites.
“The persistence of this violence is likely to push members of the communities targeted by the attacks, who have so far shown restraint, to form self-defence militias,” UNJRHO said.
“This could increase the likelihood of large-scale inter-communal violence in the region,” a Reuters new report stated.
Since June 2018, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, bringing the number of displaced people in Ituri province to more than 1.2 million, UNJRHO said. On March 25 CODECO’s leader Justin Ngudjolo was killed in an army ambush, leading to a power struggle and split within the group.
“There is a high risk that leaders with more radical positions will emerge and plunge the area into a more serious cycle of violence, with even more attacks against (the army) and civilians,” UNJRHO said in the report.
Murder of Chinese businessmen raise tensions in Zambia
Strong tensions have been rekindled in Zambia, over the brutal murder of three Chinese factory bosses in the country, allegedly killed by disgruntled employees over the weekend.
The local press reported the three victims, who were found dead in their burnt out factory, were killed by aggrieved employees of their textile business in Makeni, a suburb of the capital Lusaka.
Police spokeswoman Esther Katongo on Wednesday said investigations had so far led to the arrest of two suspects, reporting also that they had “retrieved the third body of the Chinese national murdered in Makeni.”
“As government we are saddened by the killing and it’s regrettable, it’s barbaric and I am certain that the police will be on top of things,” Foreign Minister Joseph Malanji told AFP. “This is anarchy.”
The killings come after a campaign by Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa, to close Chinese-owned businesses, including barber shops and restaurants, after locals complained about discrimination.
The mayor has also targeted his crusade on a number of other Chinese businesses, lambasting them to use English and stop employing only Chinese nationals, saying “apartheid” ended a long time ago.
His altercations with the Chinese went viral on social media, prompting some government officials to denounce his action but he won accolades from many Zambians.
Sampa on Wednesday apologised to Chinese nationals in Zambia for his actions saying “I accept my error in judgement.”
Zambian rights activist Brebner Changala warned of further repercussions as workers did not feel protected from Chinese employers who “want to behave like they are the owners of the country.”
“The unions and the ministry of labour that are supposed to protect them are not and so they have to fend and defend themselves,” Changala told AFP.
According to a United Nations 2019 world population study, an estimated 80,000 Chinese nationals live in Zambia.
China is the largest foreign investor in the landlocked country, having built airports, roads, schools, factories and police stations, fomenting anti-Chinese sentiment with Zambia now heavily indebted to Beijing.