Heavy fighting between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the M23 rebel group in the country’s troubled North Kivu province has forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes in the past two weeks, taking little they can with them. Dozens have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced since January. In 2008, the International Rescue Committee estimated that the war and its aftermath had caused 5.4 million deaths, principally through disease and malnutrition, making the Second Congo War the deadliest worldwide conflict since World War II. Between five and 10 million people died as a result of the colonial exploitation under the rule and administration of King Leopold II and his functionaries. How can the Congolese community work together with the international community to make sure the international laws are giving attention to the situation into the east of the DRC?
More background information about genocide the Congo
Since 1996, the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic Congo has led to approximately six million deaths. The First Congo War (1996–1997) began in the wake of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, during which ethnic Hutu killed an estimated one million minority ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda. During and following the genocide, nearly two million Hutu refugees crossed the Congolese border, mostly settling in refugee camps in the Eastern Part of Congo. Rwandan troops, under the leadership of President Paul Kagame, and Congo-based Tutsi militias with Rwandan backing launched an invasion of the Congo. This was justified by arguing that Hutu groups in eastern DRC were still a threat to their Tutsi population and that the Mobutu regime was harboring Hutu extremists who had fled across the border.
Since most of the conflict is taking place around mining areas that are rich of resources, it is also called a resource conflict in which Rwanda’s government is also supported by Western governments while it has invaded and occupied the Eastern Congo. Meanwhile, Rwanda continues to export resources from the Congo towards Western tech and military industries and consumer markets. This is why we need to question how we can end this occupation of the Congo. As hort documentary with more information about the current crisis in the Congo can be found in this documentary of Friends of the Congo.
