D.R. CONGO

Nouvelles violences en République démocratique du Congo

Source: Radio Vatican

12 Mai 2015 - Un nouveau massacre s'est produit à Béni, dans l’Est de la République démocratique du Congo. Lundi soir, des hommes armés ont attaqué une position de l’armée, ainsi que plusieurs personnes, des civils, qui revenaient des champs. On compte 5 morts.

Les autorités congolaises soupçonnent les rebelles ougandais des Forces démocratiques alliées, qui n’en seraient pas à leur première incursion meurtrière dans la région. Elles seraient en effet responsables d’une série de massacres depuis le mois d’octobre 2014, massacres au cours desquels quelque 300 civils auraient perdu la vie.

La situation est devenue intenable pour la population de Béni. Lundi, de nombreux habitants avaient lancé une opération « ville morte », pour protester contre l’insécurité grandissante, et surtout l’apathie des autorités et l’inefficacité de l’armée pourtant présente en force dans la région.

Five Killed in New DR Congo Rebel Attack near Beni

Source: AFP

12 May 2015 - Five people were killed in a new attack blamed on Ugandan rebels near Beni in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said Tuesday.

More than 300 people have been killed in seven months of massacres in the troubled North Kivu province by rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

The latest attack happened late Monday at Mavivi, close to Beni, a major trading hub around which much of the bloodshed has been centered.

"We found the bodies of five people killed with machetes and axes, and seven injured," regional official Amisi Kalonda told AFP.

He said the victims had been coming back from the fields at nightfall when they were set upon by attackers, "presumed" to be from the ADF.

Major Victor Masandi, spokesman for the Congolese military operation against the rebels, said one group of guerillas attacked an army position while another set upon the civilians.

The new killings came as students and locals gathered in Beni Tuesday to demand more action against the attacks, with police ordered to break up the protest, the town's interim mayor Angele Nyirabitaro told AFP.

The security situation in the area has dramatically deteriorated in the past week with seven more people killed in another massacre similar to the Mavivi attack on Friday, while two U.N. peacekeepers from its MONUSCO mission died in an ambush on May 5.

The U.N. forces launched a joint operation with the Congolese army against the ADF in December, but the killings -- mostly by machete -- have continued.

The mostly Muslim Ugandan rebels set up bases in the east of DR Congo in the mid-1990s during an unsuccessful insurgency against President Yoweri Museveni, before being finally forced to retreat over the border.

Killings by suspected Ugandan rebels draw protest in eastern Congo

Source: Reuters

Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Bate Felix; Editing by Mark Trevelyan

Kinshasa, 12 May 2015 - Hundreds of people protested in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday after a machete attack by suspected Ugandan rebels in which a local activist said at least six people were killed.

Activist Teddy Kataliko told Reuters that seven other people were wounded and two missing after men with machetes and hatchets attacked a village on Monday evening. An army spokesman, Major Victor Masandi, said he know of three deaths.

Witnesses said police fired in the air on Tuesday to disperse a crowd protesting in the nearby town of Beni over the lack of security in the volatile region.

Millions died in eastern Congo in a 1998-2003 war that sucked in more than a half dozen neighbouring countries, and the region remains ravaged by dozens of armed groups who contest its vast reserves of gold, diamonds and tin.

Masandi blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist rebel group formed in the 1990s to fight the Ugandan government, but which now operates primarily on the Congolese side of the border.

He said Congolese troops exchanged fire with the assailants, forcing them to flee.

A spate of overnight massacres near Beni since October has killed more than 300 civilians. The government and local activists have blamed the ADF, though analysts say other groups are likely to be involved as well.

The Congolese army launched a major operation against the ADF last year and says it has dramatically weakened the group.

But regular attacks against civilians in the region have continued, and the army blamed ADF fighters for an ambush on U.N. peacekeepers last week that killed two and wounded 13 Tanzanian troops.

The U.N. mission in the country has so far declined to officially assign responsibility for the ambush.

The ADF's leader, Jamil Mukulu, was arrested last month in Tanzania. Congo and Uganda have both sent teams to Tanzania to lobby for his extradition.

Congo seeks extradition of Islamist rebel chief from Tanzania

Source: Reuters

Reporting by Aaron Ross; Additional reporting by Elias Biryabarema in Kampala; Editing by Andrew Roche

11 May 2015 - Democratic Republic of Congo has sent a delegation to Tanzania to request the extradition of the leader of a Ugandan Islamist group blamed for massacres in eastern Congo, Congo's justice minister said on Monday.

Jamil Mukulu, head of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), was arrested in Tanzania in late April. His group was formed in the 1990s to fight the Ugandan government but now operates primarily on the Congolese side of the border.

"There is a delegation that left for Tanzania yesterday with the dossier," Minister Alexis Thambwe told Reuters.

Thambwe said he had assured the Tanzanian government Mukulu would not be executed.

A Ugandan team is also in Tanzania to lobby for Mukulu's extradition, Ugandan security sources told Reuters. They said they were not aware of Congo's wish to extradite but would be willing to discuss the issue.

Mukulu, who has been under U.N. sanctions since 2011, is a Ugandan national but Thambwe said he should be extradited to Congo because he had committed his most serious crimes there.

Attacks by the group in western Uganda and the capital Kampala killed 1,000 people between 1998 and 2000, according to International Crisis Group, but ADF relocated to the Congolese side of the border following operations by the Ugandan army.

From eastern Congo, the group has profited through lucrative cross-border trade in timber and minerals and is responsible for executions, kidnappings, torture and rape, according to rights groups.

The Congolese army launched a major operation against the ADF last year that it says has dramatically weakened the group, and estimates its current strength at as few as 50 fighters.

But that has failed to prevent a string of overnight massacres since October near the town of Beni in North Kivu province, most carried out with machetes and hatchets, that the government has blamed on the ADF, though analysts caution that other groups are likely to be involved as well.

The army has also blamed ADF fighters for an ambush on U.N. peacekeepers last week that killed two and wounded 13 Tanzanian troops.

Acquitted ex-militia boss touches down in DR Congo

Source: AFP

Kinshasa: Ex-militia leader Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui on Monday arrived back in the Democratic Republic of Congo after a failed Dutch asylum attempt following his acquittal by the International Criminal Court earlier this year.

12 May 2015 - Ngudjolo arrived in Kinshasa`s international airport escorted by five European police officers before leaving surrounded by friends and family, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.

The 44-year-old former leader of the Nationalist Integrationist Front (FNI) militia was the first person ever to be tried and acquitted by The Hague-based ICC, the world`s only permanent war crimes tribunal, in February.

He was accused of war crimes for playing a commanding role in a 2003 attack by ethnic Lendu forces on Bogoro village in the vast country`s restive northeastern Ituri region in which more than 200 villagers were slaughtered.

Ngudjolo had applied to stay in the Netherlands due to fears for his safety but Dutch authorities dismissed his application.

"I can confirm that Mr Ngudjolo Chui has been deported from the Netherlands and sent back to the Democratic Republic of Congo this afternoon," Justice Ministry spokesman Jaap Oosterveer told AFP.

Resource-rich eastern Ituri has been the scene of terrible clashes between rival militias which cost more than 60,000 lives between 1999 and 2007.

Ngudjolo helped to negotiate a peace deal with Kinshasa in exchange for his promotion to the rank of colonel in the Congolese army in 2006, just months before he was arrested.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch said they "and others will be looking to the Congolese authorities to ensure Mathieu Ngudjolo`s safety and security".

Le premier prévenu acquitté par la CPI rapatrié en RD Congo

Source: APA

Nairobi, 12 Mai 2015 - Mathieu Ngudjolo, le premier prévenu à être acquitté par la Cour pénale internationale (CPI), a été renvoyé à Kinshasa, en République démocratique du Congo, selon un communiqué publié mardi à Nairobi par Human Rights Watch.

Pourtant, souligne le communiqué, Ngudjolo a dit qu'il craignait pour sa sécurité en cas de retour dans son pays, mais les autorités d'immigration néerlandaises n'ont pas estimé ses craintes suffisamment convaincantes pour lui accorder l'asile.

‘'Nous attendons des autorités congolaises qu'elles assurent la sécurité de Mathieu Ngudjolo une fois qu'il sera de retour au Congo'', a affirmé Géraldine Mattioli-Zeltner, directeur international de la défense en matière de justice à Human Rights Watch.

Ngudjolo était l'ancien chef d'état-major du Front for National Integration (FNI, Front des nationalistes et intégrationnistes), un groupe armé impliqué dans le conflit local et régional qui a ravagé la province de l'Ituri, dans l'est du Congo au début des années 2000.

Il avait été arrêté à Kinshasa par les autorités congolaises en 2008 en vertu d'un mandat d'arrêt de la CPI relatif à des accusations de crimes de guerre et de crimes contre l'humanité perpétrés dans le village de Bogoro, en Ituri, en février 2003. La chambre de première instance de la CPI a, en décembre 2012, acquitté Ngudjolo de toutes les accusations dont il faisait objet.

L'acquittement a été confirmé en appel le 27 février 2015. Ngujdolo a déposé une indemnisation à la CPI suite à son acquittement.

RDC: pour dénoncer l'insécurité, opération "ville morte" dans le Nord-Kivu

Source: Jeune Afrique

Les habitants de Beni, localité dans l'est de la RDC, s'insurgent contre l'inefficacité de l'armée et des autorités, après un énième massacre de civils dans la région.

12 Mai 2015 - Écoles fermées, boutiques closes, entreprises désertées…Beni, dans l'est de la République démocratique du Congo, avait des allures de ville fantôme lundi.

Et pour cause: les habitants y ont observé une opération "ville morte" pour dénoncer l'inefficacité de l'armée et des autorités, après un énième massacre de civils dans la région. "Nous demandons aux autorités de procéder au changement du commandement des opérations Sukola 1 qui ont failli à leur mission de sécuriser les populations", a déclaré Gilbert Kambale, l'un des dirigeants de la Société civile de Beni, une ONG locale.

Qu'est-ce-que l'opération Sukola 1?

Cette opération militaire a été lancée par l'armée congolaise début 2014 contre les rebelles ougandais musulmans des Forces démocratiques alliées (ADF), installés dans l'est du Congo depuis 1995. Elle est dirigée par un proche du président congolais Joseph Kabila, le général Muhindo Akili "Mundos".

Les miliciens des ADF sont soupçonnés d'avoir tué plus de 300 civils dans une série de massacres commis depuis octobre dans la région de Beni. Vendredi, la dernière attaque en date a coûté la vie à sept personnes.

"On nous tue et ils font comme si de rien n'était"

"Nous n'avons pas ouvert la boutique aujourd'hui", a affirmé le propriétaire d'un magasin de vêtements à Beni. La ville, importante place commerciale à 250 km au nord de Goma, compte environ 500 000 habitants. "Les autorités n'assurent pas notre sécurité", s'est indigné ce trentenaire, "on nous tue et ils font comme si de rien n'était".

"Je comprends l'inquiétude de notre population, mais la solution ne sera pas trouvée comme par un coup de baguette magique", a déclaré le maire par intérim de Beni, Angèle Nyirabitaro, invitant les habitants à "faire confiance" aux autorités.

Forte dégradation de la situation sécuritaire

La sécurité dans la région de Beni s'est fortement dégradée depuis le début du mois. Le 5 mai deux Casques bleus de la Mission de l'ONU au Congo (Monusco) et deux civils ont été tués dans une embuscade. La veille, un hélicoptère de l'ONU avait été obligé d'atterrir en urgence après avoir essuyé des tirs.

En décembre, une opération conjointe de l'armée congolaise et de la Monusco avait contribué à ramener le calme dans la zone, sans que les massacres de civils ne cessent totalement.

Cette opération a par ailleurs fait les frais de la brouille entre la Monusco et les autorités de Kinshasa. Depuis quelques mois, les deux forces n'entretiennent pratiquement plus de coopération militaire.

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