Hundreds of thousands of civilians are in grave danger in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) eastern Beni Territory in the wake of deadly violence and mass protests that have cut off humanitarian access to the troubled region. As fighting between government forces and armed groups mounts, armed groups are attacking schools and health centers where civilians are known to be sheltering. A mass atrocity situation is underway, with civilians — primarily women and children — caught in the crossfire. All of this is unfolding in the same part of the DRC that has been struggling with an Ebola outbreak for over a year, and where hundreds of attacks on those trying to fight the virus have added to the already daunting challenge of responding to the outbreak.
On October 30, the DRC government launched a security operation against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), one of many armed groups that have been terrorizing the region for years. The ADF has been accused of massacring more than 700 civilians in the Beni region between October 2014 and January 2017. Though responsibility for many of the attacks and massacres in and around the Beni region of North Kivu have been attributed to the ADF, the situation is actually far more nuanced, with many other actors explicitly targeting civilians and displaced populations in the area. The Nande ethnic group, the majority population in the region, has cried out for years that a quiet genocide is underway, with the intent of forcing them out of this resource-rich area.
The government’s security operation almost immediately catalyzed retaliatory attacks against civilians by the ADF. The UN estimates that at least 100 people have been killed in violent attacks since November 2, with thousands more displaced, the majority of them women and children. Additional mass displacements have been reported from neighboring Mbau and Oicha localities, with people taking refuge in Beni in an effort to flee attacks as well as ongoing fighting between Congo’s army and the ADF.
Hundreds of families and displaced individuals are currently sleeping in churches and schools. Many children in these facilities arrive unaccompanied, having lost or been separated from their parents. Forced recruitment by armed groups is a real threat to these children’s safety, while women and girls face heightened risk of gender-based violence, commonly wielded as a weapon of war. In addition to the heightened risk of violations, the civilians trapped in Beni have become completely cut off from vital assistance. The World Food Programme, for example, was forced to pull out due to the violence, leaving thousands of people without food.
Increasing civilian casualties have prompted protests in Beni by locals demanding greater protection from the Congolese army and the UN’s peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO. Following news of an attack that killed at least eight people on Monday, November 25, demonstrations turned violent, with protesters burning the Beni town hall and damaging buildings within a MONUSCO base. From a distance, it can be perplexing to understand why protesters are attacking the very peacekeepers sent to provide stability or why health workers trying to stop the spread of Ebola have been vilified and even attacked. But these populations have experienced decades of insecurity, merciless attacks by dozens of armed groups with nebulous agendas, and abject failures of government institutions in protecting them or upholding their rights. In this rule-of-law vacuum, “they see enemies everywhere, and most of the time it is impossible for citizens to hold them to account,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
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The current insecurity adds to an already-complex displacement situation in North Kivu province, with 1.5 million people internally displaced by the conflict and ongoing efforts to fight the deadly Ebola virus. In addition to rural populations fleeing to Beni from its environs, urban Beni residents are also affected by displacement, as many have fled their homes due to the recent surge of attacks within the city. Because of the insecurity, there is very little information on the actual number of displaced inside Beni, or on the specific humanitarian conditions and needs of these people. What is clear is that this new surge of violence will ineluctably hamper the fight against Ebola at the very epicenter of the epidemic. Though the number of Ebola cases in the DRC has declined in recent weeks, from among the 22 Ebola cases observed over the last 21 days, six were reported in the Beni health zone. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ebola response has been paralyzed by the violence, which has included attacks on frontline health workers. Around one-third of WHO’s Ebola response personnel in Beni have been temporarily relocated some 225 miles south to the urban center of Goma, making it all but certain that “new chains of transmission” will open up, causing an inevitable regression in the fight to eradicate this global health crisis.
As Congo’s army and the UN peacekeepers battle the ADF and other armed groups, they must prioritize civilian protection above all else. All attacks on civilians should be thoroughly investigated and any captured armed group leaders should be held to account for atrocities perpetrated against the local population. The UN Security Council must also critically assess the growing threat facing vulnerable populations throughout the eastern DRC when it considers MONUSCO’s mandate renewal next month. An independent strategic review has recommended that the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo complete a phased withdrawal by 2022. A downsizing at this time would be catastrophic for the civilians of North Kivu. In this moment of chaos, the UN must intensify rather than scale down its efforts to engage with the politics of post-election DRC. The Congolese government and regional powers in central Africa should work together to mitigate the DRC’s internal instability. The international community must remain committed to helping the government build legitimate political institutions and harness domestic and regional efforts to establish the peace that has eluded this war-beleaguered country for far too long.
The Ebola Eradication Act, which would open up USAID funds for a more comprehensive and community-focused response to the Ebola epidemic, passed the Senate on September 23. L.A. Congresswoman Karen Bass introduced the House version of the bill. Now, more than ever, the United States must lift restrictions on funding to the Congo in order to help quell the violence and bring the Ebola outbreak to an end. Please ask your local members of Congress to co-sponsor this important legislation.
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