Batwa-Luba clashes

Batwa-Luba clashes

Location of Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Date2013 – present
(3 years, 6 months, 4 weeks and 1 day)
LocationKatanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Status Ongoing
Belligerents
Pygmy Batwa militia Luba militia
Casualties and losses
Hundreds killed, ten of thousands displaced[1]

The Batwa-Luba clashes are a series of ongoing clashes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) the Pygmy Batwa people,[lower-alpha 1] and the Luba people starting in 2013.

Background

The pygmy Batwa are often exploited and allegedly enslaved[3] by the Luba and other Bantu groups. While the pygmy never organized militarily to resist, starting with the First Congo War, rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who won the war, organized the Twa into paramilitary groups to help him. His son, Joseph Kabila, who succeeded him, used these militias in the Second Congo War and against the predominately Luba Mai-Mai Kata Katanga.[4]

Course of the conflict

In Tanganyika Province, in the northern part of the former Katanga Province, starting in 2013, Pygmy Batwa rose up into militias, such as the "Perci" militia, and attacked Luba villages.[5] A Luba militia known as "Elements" attacked back, notably killing at least 30 people in the "Vumilia 1" displaced people camp in April 2015. Since the start of the conflict, hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes.[3] The weapons used in the conflict are often arrows and axes, rather than guns.[5]

In September 2016, the United Nations along with provincial authorities established local councils called "baraza" to address grievances and this appeared to reduce the violence.[4] However, clashes intensified at the end of 2016.[6] The military's attempt to arrest a Twa warlord, led to a spread of the fighting. Twa militias have also started targeting the Tutsis, another Bantu group, by slaughtering their cows.[4]

Casualties

Mortality

More than a thousand people were killed in the first eight months of 2014 alone.[4]

Displaced people

The number of displaced people are estimated to be 543,00 as of March 2017. This is up from 370,000 in December 2016, the strongest growth of the current conflicts in the Congo, which has the largest population of displaced people in Africa. Many refugees are allegedly forced by the government to leave the camps and return to their homes, where the fighting still continues.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ The two major divisions of Pygmies in the DRC are the Bambuti, or Mbuti, who largely live in the Ituri forest in the northeast, and the Batwa, but many Batwa in certain areas of the country also refer to themselves as Bambuti.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "DR Congo: Ethnic Militias Attack Civilians in Katanga". Human Rights Watch. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  2. ↑ "Democratic Republic of the Congo - Batwa and Bambuti". Minority Rights Group International.
  3. 1 2 "DR Congo: Ethnic Militias Attack Civilians in Katanga". Human Rights Watch. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Displaced Congolese civilians sent back to a widening war". irinnews.com. 11 July 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  5. 1 2 "In Congo, Wars Are Small and Chaos Is Endless". nytimes.com. 30 April 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  6. ↑ "Democratic Republic of the Congo Humanitarian Situation Report" (PDF). Reliefweb.
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