Amnesty International Report 2017/18

146

Amnesty International Report 2017/18

intelligence services; 39 protesters were 

killed, including at least eight women and five 

children, and at least 100 were injured. No 

legal action was known to have been taken 

against the perpetrators by the end of the 

year.

HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

Human rights defenders and youth activists 

were targeted by security forces and armed 

groups for their work; they included Alex 

Tsongo Sikuliwako and Alphonse Kaliyamba, 

killed in North Kivu.

In May, the Senate passed a bill purporting 

to strengthen protection for human rights 

defenders. However, the bill contained a 

restrictive definition of what constituted a 

human rights defender. It strengthened the 

state’s control over human rights 

organizations, and threatened to curtail their 

activities. It could result in the non-

recognition of human rights organizations.

CONFLICT IN THE KASAÏ REGION

Violence in the region, which erupted in 

2016, spread to five provinces and left 

thousands dead, and by 25 September, 1 

million were internally displaced; there was 

widespread destruction of social 

infrastructure and villages. Militias emerged, 

which increasingly attacked people on the 

basis of their ethnicity, namely those 

perceived to support the Kamuena Nsapu 

uprising.

Followers of Kamuena Nsapu were 

suspected of human rights abuses in the 

region, including recruitment of child 

soldiers, rapes, killings, destruction of over 

300 schools and of markets, churches, police 

stations and government buildings.

The Bana Mura militia was formed around 

March by individuals from the Tshokwe, 

Pende and Tetela ethnic groups with the 

support of local traditional leaders and 

security officials. It launched attacks against 

the Luba and Lulua communities whom it 

accused of supporting the Kamuena Nsapu 

uprising. Between March and June, there 

were reports that in Kamonia territory, the 

Bana Mura and the army killed around 251 

people; 62 were children, 30 of them aged 

under 8.

VIOLATIONS BY SECURITY FORCES

The Congolese police and army carried out 

hundreds of extrajudicial killings, rapes, 

arbitrary arrests and acts of extortion. 

Between February and April, internet videos 

showed soldiers executing alleged Kamuena 

Nsapu followers, including young children. 

The victims were armed with sticks or 

defective rifles, or were simply wearing red 

headbands. The government initially 

dismissed the accusations, saying they were 

“fabricated” to discredit the army. However, 

in February it acknowledged that “excesses” 

had taken place and pledged to prosecute 

those suspected of serious human rights 

violations and abuses in the region, including 

its security forces.

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY

On 6 July, seven army soldiers were given 

sentences of between one year and life 

imprisonment in connection with extrajudicial 

executions in Mwanza-Lomba, a village in 

Kasaï Oriental province. The sentences 

followed a trial in which the victims were not 

identified and nor were their relatives given 

the opportunity to testify before the court or 

seek reparations.

On 12 March, Swedish national Zaida 

Catalan and US national Michael Sharp, both 

members of the UN Security Council DRC 

Sanctions Committee’s Group of Experts, 

were executed during an investigative 

mission in the Kasaï Central province. Their 

bodies were found 16 days later, near 

Bunkonde village. Zaida Catalan had been 

beheaded. Three of their drivers and an 

interpreter who accompanied them 

disappeared and had not been found by the 

end of the year. In April, the authorities 

showed diplomats and journalists in Kinshasa 

a video of the execution of the two experts; 

the origins of the video remained unknown. 

The video, which claimed that Kamuena 

Nsapu “terrorists” were the perpetrators, was 

shared on the internet and admitted as 

evidence in the ongoing military court trial of 

the people accused of the killings. The trial 

began on 5 June in the city of Kananga.

---

Amnesty International Report 2017/18

147

In June, the UN Human Rights Council 

established an independent international 

inquiry, which was opposed by the 

government, to investigate serious human 

rights violations in the Kasaï province. In July, 

the UN High Commissioner for Human 

Rights announced the appointment of an 

international team of experts, which in 

September began investigating the incidents 

and is expected to issue its findings in 

June 2018.

CONFLICT IN EASTERN DRC

Chronic instability and conflict continued to 

contribute to grave human rights violations 

and abuses. In the Beni region, civilians were 

targeted and killed. On 7 October, 22 people 

were killed on the Mbau-Kamango road by 

unidentified armed men.

Kidnappings increased in North Kivu; at 

least 100 cases were recorded in Goma city. 

In North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, dozens of 

armed groups and security forces continued 

to commit murder, rape, extortion, and to 

engage in illegal exploitation of natural 

resources. The conflict between the Hutu 

and Nande in North Kivu resulted in deaths, 

displacement and destruction, especially in 

the Rutshuru and Lubero areas.

In the Tanganyika and Haut-Katanga 

provinces, communal violence between the 

Twa and the Luba continued. In Tanganyika 

the number of internally displaced people 

(IDPs) reached 500,000. Between January 

and September, over 5,700 Congolese fled to 

Zambia to escape the conflict.

Despite the security situation, the authorities 

continued to close IDP camps around the 

town of Kalemie, forcing displaced people to 

return to their villages or to live in even worse 

conditions.

DETENTION

There was an unprecedented number of 

prison breakouts across the country; 

thousands escaped, and dozens died. On 17 

May, an attack was carried out on Makala 

Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Centre, 

Kinshasa’s main prison. The attack, which 

the authorities blamed on the political group 

Bundu dia Congore, resulted in the escape of 

over 4,000 prisoners. On 11 June, 930 

prisoners escaped from the Kangbayi central 

prison in Beni city, including dozens 

convicted a few months earlier for killing 

civilians in the Beni area. Hundreds of other 

detainees escaped from prisons and police 

detention centres in Bandundu-ville, 

Kasangulu, Kalemie, Matete (Kinshasa), 

Walikale, Dungu, Bukavu, Kabinda, Uvira, 

Bunia, Mwenga and Pweto.

Prisons were overcrowded, and conditions 

remained dire, with inadequate food and 

drinking water, and poor health care. Dozens 

of prisoners died of starvation and disease.

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY

In August, the Ministry of Mines validated a 

National Strategy to Combat Child Labour in 

Mining. National and international civil 

society groups were given the opportunity to 

provide feedback. The government 

announced that it would “progressively” 

implement many of their recommendations 

and eradicate child labour by 2025.

DENMARK

Kingdom of Denmark

Head of state: Queen Margrethe II

Head of government: Lars Løkke Rasmussen

The government annulled an agreement 

with UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, to 

accept refugees for resettlement. The 

classification of transgender identities as a 

“mental disorder” was ended.

REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS

Denmark failed to accept any refugees for 

resettlement. The government annulled its 

standing agreement with UNHCR to receive 

500 refugees annually for resettlement. From 

January 2018, the government, not 

Parliament, will decide each year if Denmark 

is to accept refugees for resettlement.

Individuals granted subsidiary temporary 

protection status had to wait three years 

before being eligible to apply for family 

---