Atrocities and Rebel Militia Groups in Africa Essay Example
Atrocities and Rebel Militia Groups in Africa Essay Example

Atrocities and Rebel Militia Groups in Africa Essay Example

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  • Pages: 11 (2957 words)
  • Published: April 16, 2022
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Introduction

Atrocity portrays both the act of remorselessness and the feeling of brutality. Atrocity is regularly used as a part of the setting of fighting. Rebel militia groups are groups that can possibly use arms in the utilization of constrain to accomplish political, ideological or financial goals (Schneider et al, 2015 p123). They are not inside of the formal military structures of States, State-unions or intergovernmental associations. Rebel groups are not under the control of the State(s) in operation. It is these groups of rebels that has for a long period of time caused political disorders and lack of peace in the land of Congo.

M23, which is one of prominent groups of rebels rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are responsible for widespread war crimes, including summary executions, rapes, and forced recruitment (Peterma

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n, 2014 p231). Rwandan officials may be complicit in war crimes through their continued military assistance to M23 forces, Human Rights Watch said. The Rwandan army has deployed its troops to eastern Congo to directly support the M23 rebels in military operations. Democratic Republic of Congo is a nation which is very rich in natural resources. Among other problems, citizens in the DRC have been subjected to an assault of human rights manhandle in the course of recent decades.

The government however has tried various ways including signing of treaties in a bid to protect the citizens and seize the phenomenon. This has been found to be a major contributing factor to atrocities as the militia groups obtain finance for their rebellious activities from the exchange of these resources. This piece of writing is a research paper on the subject of atrocities and

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the rebel militia groups in Democratic Republic of Congo which aims at answering the following questions; what are conditions in DRC like? What & where are the precious resources in DRC? Who are the main domestic & int'l controlling groups? What is the gov't and its control on the eastern resources rich area? Who are the rebel armies and their funders and method? How have civilians been affected by the atrocities? What media/organizations address this topic and how?

Situation in DRC

Violence has tormented the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since its rising up out of Belgian colonization in 1960. After forty years, on July 10, 1999, DRC, alongside Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Uganda, consented to the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement for an end of dangers between every single forces in the Congo. Since April 2012, unsteadiness in North and South Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has turned out to be progressively fierce.

Genocide Watch cautions that there have as of now been genocidal slaughters and mass atrocities by warring ethnic rebel groups, and serious genocide A Mai Mai rebel militia group is focusing on any individual who communicates in Kinyarwanda (Congolese or Rwandan, soldie`r or regular citizen), and has proclaimed its plan to execute or remove all Kinyarwanda speaking individuals from the Congo. On the same connection, a Hutu rebel group, the FDLR, is focusing on anybody connected with the Raia Mutomboki. Since the start of 2012, these two rebel groups have supposedly murdered no less than 700 individuals and have displaced more than 300,000 Congolese. Since the end of the Second Congo War in 2003, the Congolese armed force (FARDC) has

surrendered its endeavors to appease the eastern Congo.

It is at present in quest for the Rwandan March 23 Movement (M23). Due to absence of the FARDC has left a power vacuum, which has led to now DRC to be full of Raia Mutomboki and the FDLR (Peterman, 2014 p231). The DRC has been in consistent clashes following 1994, the year of the Rwandan genocide, when Rwandan genocidaires fled into the DRC. In 1996 Laurent Kabila, upheld by the Rwandan Army, attacked the Congo, slaughtered numerous Hutu and toppled President Mobutu. Rwandan and Ugandan troops stayed in the DRC, and numerous other African nations sent armed forces to abuse the unfathomable mineral assets of DRC, driving regular people into the wilderness, bringing about more than four million citizens’ deaths and assaults of 200,000 ladies.

A peace agreement was then signed in 2009, and civilian armies of the National Congress for the Defense of People (CNDP), were to be incorporated with the FARDC. However , in April 2012, CNDP troopers who had not officially left the FARDC mutinied and joined M23, drove by Bosco Ntaganda, a pioneer in the CNDP. Ntaganda has a warrant for his capture issued by the International Criminal Court for utilizing children soldiers. M23 is situated in the eastern Congo territory of North Kivu and looks for a free Tutsi-led state. It has been claimed that the Rwandan government supports M23, however Rwanda denies inclusion. M23 has perpetrated crimes against humankind by focusing on regular citizen populations, mutilations, and mass assault of rape cases The Raia Mutomboki and the genocidaire-led FLDR are concerned with a respective genocidal strife.

Both rebel groups slaughter and ravage whole

villages, soldiers and regular citizens. Both rebel groups have broadened enlistment past the Kivus. Nearby leaders fear Raia Mutomboki and say it gets bolster from M23 (Autesserre & Séverine, 2010 p245). The Kivus are again diving into genocide, mass assault, and constrained extraditions.

Media/associations address this subject

  • Genocide Watch advocates a huge increment in endeavors by MONUSCO to chase down culprits of genocide in both the FLDR and Raia Mutomboki with strong financing and preparing from European and other African governments, finishing in a truce checked by MONUSCO.
  • International relief associations ought to set up safe refugee hallways and camps for IDPs.
  • Genocide Watch requests that Bosco Ntaganda and all genocidists be captured for atrocities and taken to the ICC. The guideline of subsidiarity–giving priority to the national courts over the ICC–does not have any significant bearing to Ntaganda, on the grounds that the DRC referred his case to the ICC in 2004.
  • Genocide Watch calls upon the Congolese government and neighboring governments to pass essential enactment to construct national foundations for equity and responsibility, ensure genuine local security, and pass and uphold laws that outlaw financier help to the local rebel militia groups by foreign powers.

The valuable resources in DRC

DRC's natural resources include - including timber, precious diamond, copper, cobalt, gold, uranium and coltan.

These resources are majorly located in eastern part of DRC and some parts of South Kivu. Local militia rebel groups, supported by Uganda, Rwanda and mining multinationals, get supplies of food, cash, and military equipment in exchange for mineral resources. In October 2003, an UN board of specialists discharged a report charging Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe of

methodically abusing Congolese resources and suggested the Security Council force sanctions. Surely because of intense political and financial preferences, the UN never caught up on the report's proposals.

In a September 2005 determination on struggle aversion, the Security Council recognized surprisingly the connection between common resources and outfitted clash, vowing to make a move against illicit abuse and trafficking of local resources, especially in Africa. In January 2006, the Council made one stride further and received Resolution 1653 on the local measurements of peace and security in the Great Lakes district of Africa (Peterman et al, 2010 p45). The determination approaches the governments of DRC, and those of Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi to advance legal and straightforward utilization of natural resources among themselves. Reestablished pressures between DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda may dive Congo once again into insecurity.

The governments of Uganda and Rwanda blame the UN and Congolese troops for neglecting to control the revolt amasses that once in a while dispatch assaults over their borders. Rwanda and Uganda has however kept on intervening secretly in DRC's inside undertakings. On December 19 2005, an across the nation choice affirmed an UN-upheld draft constitution. However restored violence hazards wrecking the delicate peace process, further entangling the move to democracy.

Rebel Groups

Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)

The FDLR, made up of Rwandan Hutu radicals who entered the Congo following the 1994 Rwandan genocide, has more than once assaulted civilians, for example, in January 2012, when it murdered twenty-six individuals in South Kivu. It has additionally been included in the enlistment of child troopers (Autesserre ; Séverine, 2010 p248). Human Rights Watch assist noticed that between April

2012 and May 2013 alone, the FDLR killed 314 regular folks in different assaults. Hence, however it has been debilitated as of late, the FDLR remains a vital component of the contention in the DRC. In October 2013, Oxfam reaffirmed that the human rights mishandle submitted by the FDLR, and other revolt gatherings, couldn't be overlooked in light of the sudden thrashing of the M23 revolts

Maï-Maï Sheka

The Maï-Maï Sheka has added to the warfare in the DRC by assaulting civilians, as well as UN peacekeepers.

This rebel group, which was framed in 2009 by mineral resources businesspeople, was likewise included in the increased October 2013 violence experienced in the eastern DRC. Prior, the Maï-Maï Sheka had picked up reputation for an incredibly savage scene of sexual savagery in 2010. During 30 July to 4 August 2010, the mass rape of more than 240 women was done in the eastern Congo by individuals from both the Rwandan FDLR and Maï-Maï Sheka rebel groups. Furthermore, homes and shops of numerous who might likewise be assaulted were looted (Autesserre & Séverine, 2010 p245). These violations happened inside of miles of the UN peacekeepers' base, however the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) was not able ensure Congolese citizens. UN home office just got to be mindful of the brutality days after the fact, when the International Medical Corps, which was accused of treating a considerable lot of the casualties of these assaults, initially reported it.

Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)

The Ugandan-led ADF has existed following the mid-1990s. While moderately little, the ADF has kidnapped Congolese nationals and is known not connections to

the terrorist systems of Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab. While the ADF's definitive objective is to set up Shari'a law in Uganda, the FARDC started Operation Ruwenzori in 2010 with an end goal to drive the ADF out of the DRC. Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) The Ugandan-based LRA is driven by Joseph Kony, the scandalous warlord known for his famous enrollment of child fighters. In December 2009, LRA officers killed more than 300 individuals and snatched 250 more through the span of four days in Makombo, situated in northeastern DRC. Similar assaults proceeded in the subsequent years.

Moreover, given the Congolese government's essential concentrate on the M23, the FARDC has regularly been not able shield Congolese regular citizens from assaults by the LRA.

March 23 Movement (M23)

On 23 March 2009, the CNDP, (National Congress for the Defense of the People), a former rebel group headed by Laurent Nkunda, came into a peace arrangement with the Congolese government to reintegrate into the FARDC (Peterman, 2014 p 230). After three years, former CNDP compels, complaining about the non-execution of assertions to coordinate political-military developments of the CNDP into the FARDC, and contending that the administration had consequently just "faked" its endeavors at inclusivity, came up with another rebel group called the M23. Headed by Ntaganda, the M23 was contained ethnic Tutsis and took its name from the date of the 23 March peace understanding in 2009. Imperatively, according to Peterman, 2014 p231, the M23 has likewise been professedly sponsored by the Rwandan government, which, as per a 2012 Human Rights Watch report, has given the M23 constrained Rwandan selects, and in addition weapons and ammunition. Rwanda has additionally been

blamed for preparing child troopers and drawing them to battle for the M23, alongside allowing the M23 cross-border access into its region.

How have regular citizens been influenced by the atrocities

As the first areas on both FARDC and rebellious group activity, citizens in the DRC have been subjected to an assault of human rights manhandle in the course of recent decades. As indicated by the Enough Project, rape as a weapon of war in the DRC "exists on a scale seen no place else on the planet." Accordingly, Special Representative Wallström pronounced the DRC the "rape capital of the world" in 2010, an announcement which was supported by the UN's estimation that 15,000 ladies had been assaulted in eastern Congo in 2009 alone. This claim was further substantiated by the increment in reported sexual violence cases from 4,689 in 2011 to 7,075 in 2012, as per UN information. In its 2008 Global Report, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers assessed that 7,000 child troopers stayed in government forces and militia groups. In reality, children have regularly been selected from exile camps and utilized as soldiers, sexual slaves and porters.

In 2012, the UN blamed the M23 rebel group specifically for enlisting child warriors (Kelly ; Jocelyn, 2010 p341). Despite the fact that the UN accordingly reported the arrival of more than 500 child officers in eastern DRC territories in September 2013, around 1,500 children remained prepared in the regions being referred to. Alarmingly, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center expressed that 2.75 million aggregate Congolese have been displaced and 509,000 more have ended up exiles as of January 2013. In view of past counts

of the death rate and toll in the DRC, Caritas International likewise evaluates that about 6.9 million Congolese have now died subsequent to the flare-up of contention in 1998 what is the gov't and its control on the eastern resources rich zone? Since the emergence of war in DRC, more than twelve noteworthy peace treaties have been closed. negotiations activities, frequently handled with assistance from the worldwide group, have been the essential intends to solve violence in the DRC Most of these accords dismissed the primary clash drivers, to be specific local armies contradicted to the government in Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, all situated in the Kivus, and whose host countries are members from ICGLR.

According to Kelly &Jocelyn, 2010, the larger part of these peace treaties were encouraged however ICGLR, assembled by United Nations Resolution 1291 of 2000 and held under the sponsorship of the African Union and the UN supported by global givers. The ICGR comprises of 18 nations, 11 of which were directly included in the DRC strife by supporting no less than one group to the contention. Groups to the treaty were required to stop or keep the illicit abuse of natural resources, regard national sway over natural resources, set up the Great Lakes as a "particular recreation and improvement zone," orchestrate national and local monetary arrangements, collaborate in activities identifying with territorial vitality, transport and communication, and upgrade trade and advancement among outskirt populations to advance provincial combination (Kelly & Jocelyn, 2010 p341). The ICGLR took this issue further, given the economic measurements and motivations of the contention in the eastern DRC, by propelling a Regional Initiative on Natural Resources to

ensure, formalize, and track the mineral exchange to dispose of trafficking and the part of rebel militia groups. The government of Congo propelled another operation Amani Leo in February 2010.

Amani – "peace" in Swahili – refers to the tools put set up to execute the responsibilities made by the members. The goals of Amani Leo as per MONUSCO were to ensure civilians, expel negative strengths from population focuses, re-build up power in freed territories and restore state power. MONUC now MONUSCO reported that the operation focused on controlling key territories keeping in mind the end goal to guarantee that furnished groups, quite FDLR components, would be not able recover domain and lead response assaults (All Eyes on the Congo, 2010 p54). Inside of a couple of months be that as it may, FDRL could regroup and coordinate deliberate assaults against civilians which right now proceeds.

Conclusion

It has been uncovered that the progressing situation in eastern DRC can't be translated as essentially advanced by Congolese authorities that its issues are established in outside intercessions, however connected with more extensive government disappointments in the DRC, including the powerlessness of the Congolese state to keep up security on its region. The FDRL and Mai Groups, among other distinguished militia groups, are the significant performing actors and reasons for insecurity in eastern DRC, instead of the present worldwide conclusion that concentrated just on previous CNDP turned M23; as though M23 was to be wiped away, DRC will appreciate peace.

Undoubtedly, without a working armed force under state citizen control, equipped rebel groups will keep on proliferating in the area and have the capacity to work freely; and minerals will

just serve as their method for survival. It is further critical to note that regardless of the fact that mining action around high-value things, including precious diamond and gold, exists all through numerous areas of DRC; brutality does not create around each mine. Just North and South Kivus are encountering security issues in any event for the present, recommending that particular, nearby flow, quickened by politicization of ethnic setup, particularly the segregation and prohibition of Rwandophone population, particularly Tutsis, adds to the conflict recalcitrance.

Work Cited

  1. All Eyes on the Congo: Films for Peace in the DRC | Cultures of Resistance. Culturesofresistanceorg. 2016. Available at: http://culturesofresistance.org/congo-films. Accessed April 7, 2016.
  2. Kelly, Jocelyn. Rape in war: Motives of militia in DRC. United States Institute of Peace, 2010.
  3. Peterman A, Palermo T, Bredenkamp C.

    Estimates and Determinants of Sexual Violence Against Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Am J Public Health. 2011;101(6):1060-1067. doi:10.2105/ajph.2010.300070.

  4. Riedel, Eberhard. "A Depth Psychological Approach to Collective Trauma in Eastern Congo." Psychological Perspectives 57.3 (2014): 249-277.
  5. Schneider, Gerald, Lilli Banholzer, and Laura Albarracin.

    "Ordered Rape A Principal–Agent Analysis of Wartime Sexual Violence in the DR Congo." Violence against women 21.11 (2015): 1341-1363.

  6. Autesserre, Séverine. The Trouble with the Congo: Local violence and the failure of international Peacebuilding. Vol. 115. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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