AFRICA/D.R. CONGO - Burundian government and opposition armed groups are fighting each other on Congolese soil, denounces a local NGO

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - Burundian armed groups of opposite tendency are fighting in the plain of Ruzizi, in South Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This was stated in a note sent to Agenzia Fides by the Association contre le Mal et pour l'Encadrament de la Jeunesse (ACMEJ/DH), a local NGO that denounces violence against civilians in this province of the DRC.
"The Congolese army must make greater efforts to be able to neutralize all the domestic and foreign armed groups that still terrorize the highland villages of the Ruzizi plain, especially the armed groups that support the Burundian government against other Burundian armed groups that oppose it to the government of Bujumbura", the statement said.
ACMEJ/DH stresses "that these military clashes are not yet of a tribal community character, but are political-military clashes" between foreign entities fighting each other in Congolese territory. According to the local NGO, foreign armed groups from Burundi and Rwanda have occupied some strategic villages in the medium and high plateaus of the Ruzizi plain, while the Congolese authorities, national and provincial, are hesitant to hire these heavily armed groups. Consequently, the civilian populations displaced from the villages of the plain of Ruzizi suffer serious consequences. Internally displaced people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
There are also tensions between the inhabitants of Katogota and Burundian economic immigrants living in the same village. Following the closure of the Burundian-Congolese borders, from March 2020, due to the Covid-19 emergency, in Katogota Burundian migrants find themselves in a sort of administrative limbo due to the absence of official migration documents from both Burundian and Congolese sides. Local inhabitants complain that Burundians are responsible for the increase in insecurity and failure to comply with laws and good morals.
For their part, Burundian immigrants claim to be victims of blackmail by some security officers, of arrests and forced labor and discriminatory remarks by local inhabitants. The issue is now in the process of being resolved with the initiation of operations to recognize Burundians and diplomatic cooperation between the DRC and Burundi to facilitate their repatriation. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 27/5/2021)

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violence

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armed groups

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