Democratic Republic of the Congo

On 30 August, units of the Congolese military are reported to have killed as many as 56 members of a religious sect that was planning a protest against the United Nations peacekeeping mission MONUSCO in Goma. Followers of Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith Towards the Nations (often called Wazalendo) had gathered in a church to prepare for the protest despite an order from the city government the week before that had banned it. Both MONUSCO and the Congolese authorities cited threats of violence in the protest; other reports suggest that the group was planning an attack. However, the Congolese military’s pre-emptive and indiscriminate attack on the Wazalendo group was widely condemned. In early September, six soldiers (including two senior officers) were arrested and charged with crimes that include crimes against humanity for their role in the massacre. This latest massacre is one incident in a trend of increasing violence in the eastern provinces of the country, as the Congolese military and multi-national forces are engaged in armed confrontations with armed groups including the March 23 Movement and the Da’esh affiliated Allied Democratic Forces that have perpetrated atrocities against civilians.

Crimes Against Humanity Massacre

Member of parliament, former cabinet minister, and spokesman for the opposition party Together for the Republic (Ensemble pour la République), Chérubin Okende was found murdered on 13 July. Okende had disappeared the day before, last seen waiting in a car outside the Constitutional Court while his driver delivered documents. Party leader Moïse Katumbi described the killing as a political assassination. Okende’s death comes less than six months before presidential elections in which Katumbi will be one of the candidates running against President Félix Tshisekedi and follows the arrests of at least three other prominent members of Ensemble pour la Republique. President Tshisekedi called on the judiciary to investigate and punish those responsible.

Assassination Chérubin Okende Moïse Katumbi Félix Tshisekedi

As the process of voter registration leading up to the presidential election in December concludes, likely opposition candidates for the presidency organized a protest in Kinshasa on 20 May. The protest was against what they claim to be irregularities in the voter registration process, and against the major ongoing challenges in the country in the form of the rising cost of living and persistent conflict in the eastern regions of the country. The protest was met with a heavy-handed response from the police, including the use of tear gas. More than a dozen protestors were arrested, and a video circulated on social media showing a youth being kicked and beaten by police officers. The police said that the protest had been authorized for a different area of the city, and that the leaders of the protest did not comply with an order to go to the authorized location. Three police officers were later arrested on suspicion of assaulting a minor.

Protests Police violence

The conflict in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has become more intense in 2022. The UN reports that 50,000 people have fled since the middle of October. November began with an escalation in the use of force, as the government utilised two Sukhoi-25 ground attack aircraft to bomb positions held by the M23 armed group. The fight against M23 was also reinforced this month by the arrival in the DRC of more forces sent by the East Africa Community (EAC) member states to assist the DRC government, including 1,000 each from Uganda and Kenya. On 24 November, significant apparent progress was made as the governments of the DRC and Rwanda agreed to an “immediate cease-fire” and called upon M23 to withdraw from the areas it has occupied. However, M23 leaders said such an agreement did not involve them. The UN reports that on 29-30 November, M23 fighters massacred 131 civilians.

UN Rwanda M23 EAC Massacre