Contents:
There was widespread killing, rape, and displacement of civilians by ethnic militias in Tanganyika Province in clashes between ethnic Luba and ethnic Twa communities. The United Nations reported at least 58 persons were killed between January and June. During the same period, the United Nations documented rapes of at least 57 women, five children, and nine men committed by Twa militias. On February 5, Luba elements attacked the majority Twa village of Monde in Tanganyika Province, shooting and killing at least 30 persons and injuring 50 others.
In , 10 Twa and 27 Lubas were charged with crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide. The others were acquitted. The mandate prioritized protection of civilians and support to the implementation of the December agreement, and cut the troop ceiling by 3, military personnel.
The United Nations confirmed the existence of as many as 89 mass graves in the Kasai region, where government and Kamuina Nsapu forces were blamed for widespread extrajudicial killings.
LRA militants robbed them of their belongings and took them into the forest. Two CENI controllers were among the group, and LRA militants reportedly stole information the agents were carrying from 18 enrollment centers as well as a satellite phone and money. Witness accounts indicated that some of the detainees were executed after digging their graves, while others were executed and dumped in a village well. According to media reports, members of the FARDC raped as many as 25 women in Makobola, 14 miles south of Uvira, in late September and mid-October after the withdrawal of a Mai Mai group that had been operating in the area.
On June 4, FRPI combatants attacked the town of Mandje in Ituri Province, beating at least three men, raping at least five women, and setting at least 12 homes on fire. FRPI militants reportedly vandalized a government building and looted houses and shops. In certain areas in the east, RMGs looted, extorted, illegally taxed, and kidnapped civilians, often for ransom. For example, in the territory of Lubero, NDC combatants imposed taxes on populations under their control and used violence to enforce payment. Statistics on rape, including rape of males, were not available.
This represented a 40 percent increase in overall recruitment and a 13 percent increase in children under 15 compared to the same period in Most of the children were separated in North Kivu 73 percent , followed by the Kasai region 12 percent , Ituri 7 percent , and South Kivu 5 percent. Eight children were separated from government forces, although these children were not recruited into government forces. Of those eight cases, five children were separated from a rogue FARDC commander in Ituri and three were separated from a single police officer in the national police.
According to the United Nations, children made up approximately percent of Kamuina Nsapu militia ranks, including those used as fighters and human shields. In July the special representative to the secretary general reported thousands of children were estimated to be associated with Kamuina Nsapu; only had been separated to date. There were credible reports that Kamuina Nsapu leaders slashed children across their stomachs to see if they would survive and how the wound would heal as part of an initiation ritual prior to being deployed as human shields or child soldiers.
Some children reportedly died as a result of this initiation process. The SSF continued to arrest and detain children for their association with armed groups.
The United Nations secured the release of children from Kananga prison in Kasai Central Province where they were held on allegations of association with Kamuina Nsapu militias. Some children reported having been held for weeks at other remote facilities before being transferred to Kananga.
A presidential advisor on sexual violence and child recruitment, appointed in , raised awareness of the problems of sexual violence throughout the country and encouraged efforts to remove child soldiers from the SSF and provide services to victims. There were no reports of recruitment of child soldiers by the FARDC during the year, but there was evidence of FARDC support to armed groups that recruited and used children in hostilities.
The government cooperated with international organizations to eliminate recruitment and remove children from the SSF and RMGs. Clandestine trade in minerals and other natural resources facilitated the purchase of weapons and reduced government revenues. The natural resources most exploited were gold, cassiterite tin ore , coltan tantalum ore , and wolframite tungsten ore but also included wildlife products, timber, charcoal, and fish. According to media and civil society, the LRA trafficked in elephant ivory from Garamba National Park to finance its operations, likely by smuggling ivory through the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the disputed Kafia Kingi region controlled by Sudan, to link with illicit networks transferring these goods to China.
The illegal trade in minerals was both a symptom and a cause of weak governance.
It financed the SSF and RMGs, and sometimes generated revenue for traditional authorities and local and provincial governments. With enhanced government regulation encouraged by global advocacy efforts and donor support, the mining of cassiterite, coltan, and wolframite resulted in a small but increasing amount of legal conflict-free export from North and South Kivu, Upper Katanga, and Maniema provinces. There were unsubstantiated reports government officials were involved in illegal gold mining.
The law provides for freedom of speech, including for the press.
Antafakes. Kananga. Page: THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO. 9 MARCH ii. The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available.
The press frequently and openly criticized public officials and public policy decisions. Individuals generally could criticize the government, its officials, and other citizens in private without being subject to official reprisals. Public criticism, however, of government officials, the president, or government policies regarding elections, democracy, and corruption sometimes resulted in intimidation, threats, and arrest. The government also prevented journalists from filming or covering some protests and refused to renew or grant visas for several foreign media correspondents.
Freedom of Expression : The law prohibits insulting the head of state, malicious and public slander, and language presumed to threaten national security. Authorities sometimes detained journalists, activists, and politicians when they publicly criticized the government, the president, or the SSF. Plainclothes security agents allegedly monitored political rallies and events.
On July 31, authorities arrested human rights lawyer Timothee Mbuya and six other civil society activists and media as they were preparing a march to deliver a letter to the local office of the electoral body demanding an electoral calendar. While two of the detained were released without charges, Mbuya was sentenced to 12 months in prison on November 20 for provocation and incitation of disobedience for organizing the march and the four others were sentenced to eight months in prison.
Press and Media Freedom : The law mandates the High Council for the Audiovisual and Communications CSAC to provide for freedom of the press and equal access to communications media and information for political parties, associations, and citizens. A large and active private press functioned predominantly in Kinshasa, although with some representation across the country, and the government licensed a large number of daily newspapers.
Radio remained the principal medium of public information due to limited literacy and the relatively high cost of newspapers and television. Government officials, politicians, and to a lesser extent church leaders, owned or operated the majority of media outlets. Broadcast media were also subject to a Directorate for Administrative and Land Revenue advertisement tax. Many journalists lacked professional training, received little or no set salary, could not access government information, and exercised self-censorship due to concerns about harassment, intimidation, or arrest.
JED also named several government officials responsible for violation press freedoms. JED reported 37 cases of arbitrary arrest of journalists in comparison to 20 cases during the prior year. Authorities maintained they were closed for failing to pay back taxes and licensing fees, although they were allowed back on the air in January.
The two journalists were reporting on local Mai Mai militia activities when they were arrested. On December 4, JED denounced their continued detention. Speaking to Radio Okapi, the owner of the TKM accused Interior Minister and Vice Prime Minister Ramazani Shadari of ordering security forces to attack the radio station after a listener during a call-in show accused Shadari and the provincial governor of accepting bribes.
According to JED, at least 13 journalists were arrested, intimidated, and some physically attacked while covering peaceful civil society demonstrations throughout the country on July For example, in Bukavu, two journalists from Canal Futur alleged they were violently arrested, driven to an unknown location, and released after police forced them to erase all images they had recorded.
According to JED one independent journalist, Jean Pierre Tshibitshabu, was arrested covering the July 31 demonstrations in Lubumbashi and was sentenced to eight months in prison on September On November 2, JED reported documented press freedom violations since the beginning of the year, up from 87 during the same period in These violations included 49 journalists detained or arrested, 32 cases of journalists threatened or attacked, and 37 instances of authorities preventing the free flow of information.
Other incidents included efforts to subject journalists to administrative, judicial, or economic pressure. Censorship or Content Restrictions : While the CSAC is the only institution with legal authority to restrict broadcasts, the government, including the SSF and provincial officials, also exercised this power in practice. Some press officers in government agencies allegedly censored news articles by privately owned publications.
Privately owned media increasingly practiced self-censorship due to fear of potential suppression and the prospect of the government shutting them down as it had done previously to a handful of major pro-opposition media outlets. Media representatives reported they were pressured by the government not to cover events organized by the opposition or news concerning opposition leaders. In a July 12 decree, Communications Minister Lambert Mende announced the government would require prior authorization for any foreign media personnel wishing to travel from one province to another, which he claimed was for security reasons.
On July 31, the SSF arbitrarily arrested at least civil society activists and civilians following nationwide protests. Leopold formally acquired rights to the Congo territory at the Berlin Conference in and declared the land his private property, naming it the Congo Free State. Other voluntary activities conducted by the community Local NGOs reported in August that several individuals arrested during or following protests in were being held incommunicado and without charge at Makala Central Prison in Kinshasa. Over people attended the event on March 1, Did you know that many U.
The media watchdog JED deemed the decree a tactic to censor media and restrict their working space to prevent their covering sensitive topics. Several international journalists who were based in the country were forced to leave during the year after they were unable to renew their visas. For example, in the Ministry of Justice revived a defamation case against Vital Kamerhe, leader of the opposition party Union for the Congolese Nation, for his statements concerning electoral fraud in the elections, despite the settlement made out of court in If convicted, Kamerhe could face up to one year in prison and a fine, and could be barred from running for certain public offices.
On January 6, journalist Serge Kabongo was arrested for writing an article on alleged financial mismanagement by the director of the National Insurance Agency.
The director claimed that Kabongo was not a journalist and could not substantiate the allegations. In November the director told JED that the charges had been dropped. National Security : The national government used a law that prohibits anyone from making general defamatory accusations against the military to restrict free speech. Nongovernmental Impact : RMGs and their political wings regularly restricted press freedom in the areas where they operated. Some private entrepreneurs made moderately priced internet access available through internet cafes in large cities throughout the country.
Data-enabled mobile telephones were an increasingly popular way to access the internet.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, 6.