RDC: Nouvel Elan lettre le Gouverneur de Kinshasa André Kimbuta (15.01.2020)

RDC: Communiqué officiel relatif à la déclaration des bases taxables des concessionnaires ordinaires pour l’exercice 2020 (14.01.2020)

RDC: Declaration du Bureau Politique du Courant des Democrates Renovateurs “CDER” En Sigle (11.01.2020)

RDC: Ministere des Finances – Communique – Operations d’emission des Bons du Tresor (09.01.2020)

DRC: inter-ethnic violence in Ituri may constitute “crimes against humanity” – UN report (10.01.2020)

General view of the ISP camp for internally displaced people next to the General Hospital in Bunia.

KINSHASA/GENEVA (10 January 2020) — Killings, rapes and other forms of violence targeting the Hema community in the Democratic Republic of Congo province of Ituri may amount to crimes against humanity, a UN report released on Friday said.

An investigation conducted by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO)* in the DRC established that at least 701 people have been killed and 168 injured during inter-ethnic tensions between the Hema and Lendu communities, in the territories of Djugu and Mahagi, from December 2017 to September 2019. In addition, at least 142 people have been subjected to acts of sexual violence, the report said. Most of the victims are members of the Hema community.

Since September 2018, Lendu armed groups have increasingly become more organized in carrying out attacks against the Hema and members of other ethnic groups such as the Alur, the investigators said. Among their objectives is to take control of the land of the Hema communities and their associated resources, they added.

The report documents numerous cases of women being raped, of children — some in school uniforms — being killed, and of looting and burning of villages. On 10 June 2019, in the district of Torges, a Hema man who was trying to prevent armed assailants from raping his wife witnessed his 8-year-old son being beheaded.

“The barbarity that characterizes these attacks — including the beheading of women and children with machetes, the dismemberment and removal of body parts of the victims as trophies of war — reflects the desire of the attackers to inflict lasting trauma to the Hema communities and to force them to flee and not return to their villages,” the report said.

“The violence documented… could contain some elements of crimes against humanity through murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillage and persecution.”

Schools and health clinics have been attacked and destroyed. The report said most attacks occurred in June around the harvest period, and in December during the sowing season. “This makes it more difficult for the Hema to cultivate their fields and exacerbates their lack of food,” the report said.

Since February 2018, almost 57,000 people have taken refuge in Uganda and more than 556,000 have fled to neighbouring regions, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. Several camps and villages where the Hema have taken refuge have been stormed, burned and destroyed by Lendu armed groups, the report said.

UN investigators also documented, between December 2017 and May 2018, acts of reprisal by some members of the Hema communities, including the burning of villages and isolated attacks targeting the Lendu.

Army and police forces deployed since February 2018 have failed to stop the violence, the report stated, adding that the security forces themselves had committed abuses such as extrajudicial executions, sexual violence, arbitrary arrests and detention. Two police officers and two soldiers have been convicted by Congolese courts.

The UN Joint Human Rights Office recommends that the DRC authorities address the root causes of the conflict, such as access to resources including land, and maintain ongoing reconciliation efforts between the two communities. It also calls for a strengthened presence of state institutions and armed forces in the area to ensure the security of all communities and their peaceful cohabitation.

The report urged the authorities to conduct an independent and impartial investigation into the violence, in addition to ensuring the right to reparation for victims and their access to medical and psychosocial care.

ENDS

** The UN Joint Human Rights Office, which was established in February 2008, comprises the Human Rights Division of the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights in the DRC.*

RDC: NOGEC – Communique de Presse (08.01.2020)

RDC: Ministere de l’Enseignement Superieuret Universitaire – Communiqué de Presse (07.01.2020)

RDC: Cabinet du Premier Ministre – Communique de Presse (06.01.2020)

RDC: Union pour la Nation Congolaise (U.N.C.) – Mise au Point du Secretariat Politique National de l’UNC en Rapport avec le Test de Recrutement Organise par la DGDA (02.01.2020)

Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo (03.01.2020)

40 confirmed cases were reported from 10 health areas within five neighbouring active health zones in North Kivu province.

GENEVA, Switzerland, January 3, 2020 – Since the last disease outbreak news published on 19 December 2019, 29 new confirmed cases were reported from 18 to 31 December in the ongoing Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in North Kivu province. The confirmed cases in this week were reported from eight health areas in four health zones: Mabalako (62%, n=18), Butembo (14%, n=4), Kalunguta (17%, n=5), and Katwa (7%, n=2). Three of the four cases reported in Butembo in the past fourteen days are linked to a transmission chain of more than 50 people that originated in Aloya Health Area, Mabalako Health Zone. One individual classified as a relapse case of EVD, infected several other individuals within the family and through nosocomial transmission (for more information, please see the disease outbreak news published on 19 December 2019). In Kalunguta Health Zone, the five cases reported between 24 and 28 December 2019, are a distinct epidemiologically linked chain of transmission, although the source of exposure is currently under investigation.

In the past 21 days (11 December to 31 December), 40 confirmed cases were reported from 10 health areas within five neighbouring active health zones in North Kivu province (Figure 2, Table 1): Mabalako (68%, n=27), Butembo (13%, n=5), Kalunguta (13%, n=5), Katwa (5%, n=2), and Biena (3%, n=1). The majority of the cases (75%, n=30) are linked to known chains of transmission.

As of 31 December, a total of 3380 EVD cases were reported, including 3262 confirmed and 118 probable cases, of which 2232 cases died (overall case fatality ratio 66%) (Table 1). Of the total confirmed and probable cases, 56% (n=1900) were female, 28% (n=953) were children aged less than 18 years, and 168 (5% of all reported cases) were healthcare workers.