[Rwanda Forum] In DR Congo’s Uvira, pro-government militia actions show abuses aren’t just an M23 problem
In DR Congo's Uvira, pro-government militia actions show abuses aren't just an M23 problem
"People were whipped, arrested, some died in detention."
Life for people living under occupation by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group – which has seized vast swathes of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo – has been marked by widespread human rights abuses and economic turmoil.
Yet in the lakeside city of Uvira, suffocating daily pressures and abuses come not from the rebels but from the army and, especially, pro-government militias, who claim to protect the city and fight the M23.
"Their bombs are affecting the entire population, when they should be aimed at the enemy," said a local resident whose neighbour lost a child due to stray gunfire two months ago and whose name is being withheld to protect them from reprisals. "We just want peace."
With more than 700,000 inhabitants and sitting on the border with Burundi, Uvira is the last major stronghold of the Congolese government in South Kivu – one of two provinces that the M23 and Rwandan troops are currently occupying.
For months, fear has hung over the town as residents braced for what many assumed was inevitable: that the M23 would push south and seize the city, triggering more humanitarian upheaval in a conflict that has already displaced millions.
Yet even without the M23's arrival, residents say life in Uvira has been incredibly difficult, largely due to the presence of pro-government militias known as Wazalendo ("patriots" in Kiswahili), who are drawn from numerous local armed groups.
Wazalendo groups are supposed to act as army reservists and proxies against the M23, yet in Uvira they have taken over state functions and even clashed with the army, amid mutual accusations of spying for the rebels and abandoning front lines.
The militias are also accused of targeting Uvira's Banyamulenge population – Congolese Tutsis in South Kivu who are often perceived as supporting the Tutsi-commanded M23 – in acts of harassment and intimidation.
Army personnel have denied any responsibility for managing the conduct of Wazalendo militias – who are also accused of abuses by human rights groups and the UN – even as the military supplies them with weapons and money.
So militarised is Uvira that even without the presence of the M23, a displaced woman – a mother of six who fled to the city in February – said she hears gunfire every night from the makeshift shelter where her family now lives.
"We came here hoping to find peace, but there is no peace," she said. "We don't even have tarpaulin sheets. We need plastic bags to build a shelter, and we can only eat if we wash dishes or do laundry for families."
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-Africa Context:
https://africacontext.blogspot.com/
-Les revendications fallacieuses et discriminatoires du Rwanda en RDC qui justifient son soutien au M23:
https://africacontext.blogspot.com/2025/03/les-revendications-fallacieuses-et.html
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