Tag Archives: human rights abuses Congo

Getting Raped as a Way of Life

Leave a reply

Kanzira Kihanga, a woman who lives in Congo, says she wasn’t surprised to learn in May 2025 that she was infected by the virus that causes AIDS. The 21-year-old believes she contracted the virus after back-to-back rapes by armed men. After the first attack, she went to a clinic but was only given half a dose of the PEP medication.* Two weeks later, she was raped again as she walked to the clinic to pick up the remainder of the dosage.

*Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) refers to HIV medicines that are taken after a possible exposure to prevent HIV infection.

Excerpt from Nicholas Bariyo, Congo Braces for HIV Surge After U.S. Funding Stops, WSJ, July 4, 2025

The Scramble for Congo 21st Century Style

Leave a reply

During the 19th century’s Scramble for Africa, European countries raced to secure territory and wealth across the continent. Now, African powers are grabbing resources from a neighbor crippled by infighting and ill-equipped to defend itself. Caught in the middle is the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country the size of Western Europe whose forests conceal a wealth of gold, diamonds and coltan, a key component in smartphones and computers. These mineral riches are turning what was already a region plagued by militia violence into a battleground, as Rwanda and its local allies seize coltan supplies while Uganda and its proxies move to take over gold mines to the northeast, according to United Nations and Ugandan officials…Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Rwandan President Paul Kagame are pouring troops and weapons into Congo, while their Congolese allies, who control strategic border crossings, secure smuggling routes to move more minerals to the global markets.

In 2024, Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized the coltan-mining town of Rubaya, where fighters bring in around $800,000 each month by taxing traders. Rebel fighters have doubled diggers’ wages to encourage them to keep working, and they rely on forced labor to widen roads to accommodate trucks transporting coltan into Rwanda along with gold. According to the U.N., some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers are fighting inside Congo, a report that Rwandan authorities have denied.

Excerpt from While War Rages, Congo’s Neighbors Smuggle Out Its Gold and Mineral Wealth, WSJ, Apr. 7, 2025

Keep Killing Environmental Defenders

Leave a reply

A report released by Global Witness in September 2021 reveals that 227 land and environmental activists were murdered in 2020 for defending their land and the planet. That constitutes the highest number ever recorded for a second consecutive year…The figures show the human cost of the destruction wrought by exploitative industries and corporations. At least 30% of recorded attacks were reportedly linked to resource exploitation – across logging, hydroelectric dams and other infrastructure, mining, and large-scale agribusiness. Logging was the industry linked to the most murders with 23 cases – with attacks in Brazil, Nicaragua, Peru and the Philippines…

Colombia was once again the country with the highest recorded attacks, with 65 defenders killed in 2020. A third of these attacks targeted indigenous and afro-descendant people, and almost half were against small-scale farmers. In 2020 the disproportionate number of attacks against indigenous communities continued – with over a third of all fatal attacks targeting indigenous people. Attacks against indigenous defenders were reported in Mexico, Central and South America, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Nicaragua saw 12 killings – rising from 5 in 2019, making it the most dangerous country per capita for land and environmental defenders in 2020.

Excerpt from  LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS, Global Witness Press Release, Sept. 13, 2021

17+23 Mass Graves in Gongo

Leave a reply

The Kamwina Nsapu rebellion is an ongoing rebellion instigated by the Kamwina Nsapu militia against state security forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  The ilitia are named after Kamwina Nsapu [translating black ant], the tribal chief in the region.  The rebellion takes place in the provinces of Kasaï-Central, Kasaï, Kasai-Oriental and Lomami.   This region supported the opposition in the last presidential election against the current President Joseph Kabila who refused to step down at the end of his final term in office in December 2016,  Tensions flared when the government appointed those close to them rather than tribal chiefs into powerful positions in the local government. In June 2016, Kamwina Nsapu contested the central government’s power and began calling for an insurrection and attacked local police. On 12 August 2016, he was killed alongside eight other militiamen and 11 policemen in Tshimbulu. Upon his death, the Congolese Observatory for Human Rights condemned his killing and suggested he should have been arrested instead. There is an ethnic nature to the conflict with the militia mostly made up of Luba people and they have selectively killed non-Luba people.

On 9 February 2017, fighting erupted in Tshimbulu between 300 militiamen and the armed forces in a reprisal attack by the militia…On 14 February, the United Nations human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell announced that at least 101 people had been killed by government forces between 9 and 13 February, with 39 women confirmed to be among them.  A few days later, a video showing members of the Congolese military killing civilians in the village of Mwanza Lomba was leaked.’

Investigators working for the United Nations have discovered 17 mass graves in the Central Democratic Republic of Congo, adding to the 23 graves that were recently discovered in the area.

“The discovery of yet more mass graves and the reports of continued violations and abuses highlight the horror that has been unfolding in the Kasais over the last nine months,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said.  The discovery of the graves warrants an investigation by an international body, such as the International Criminal court (ICC).  It has also been reported that at least two women and three girls were raped by government soldiers during the operation.

The Kamuina Nsapu militia group has also been accused of carrying out a series of criminal activities against locals in Central DRC, including killings, abductions, and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Excerpts from Wikipedia and UN Discovers 17 Mass Graves in Central Congo, FacetoFace Africa, Apr. 20, 2017 https://face2faceafrica.com/article/mass-grave-d.