The war in Congo: What is at stake for women?

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) has been caught up in conflict for more than a decade, with devastating effects on its civilian population especially women and children. Rebel militias led by General Laurent Nkunda and Congolese army troops are fighting for control of the mineral-rich Eastern Province. Proceeds from the sale of minerals are being used to fund the activities which prolong the conflict. Thousands women and children have been displaced from their homes as a result of the recurrent war in Congo.

As the war in Congo drags on, African women are grappling to find ways of stopping sexual violence in the war zone. The AWID international Conference held from 11th to 14th November 2008 provided an opportunity and space for women in the great lakes region to meet and find ways of address Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Congo. The discussion spearheaded by Eastern African sub Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) under the theme "The role of women in Peace process in the Great Lakes Region." The outcome of this meeting was the formation of a working group tasked with visiting the DRC. The aim of the visit will be to highlight the situation in the DRC with special emphasis on issues relating to abuse of women. The working group comprises Women's NGOs in the Great Lakes Regions namely: African women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Urgent Action Fund, Women and Law in Development, EASSI and individuals committed fight SGBV in Congo.

The war in eastern Congo has persisted with women and children being the worst affected. The conflict is being fueled and funded by a struggle for mineral resources that are used in the manufacturing of cell phones, laptops and other electronics. As a way of expressing solidarity with the women in Congo DRC, African Women in the Great lakes region will undertake a visit to the region. The visit will be funded by Urgent Action Fund.

In the eastern provinces, hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced and too frightened to return home. The conditions for women and girls are particularly troubling: Many of them have been raped by militia men or soldiers from the national army.

According to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), since war broke out in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1998 more than 5 million people have died, most of them from lack of access to food and health care. And though the conflict officially ended in 2003, fighting has continued, mainly in the country’s eastern provinces. Many others have fled to neighboring countries such as Uganda and Zambia for safety. Today, countless people remain in camps far from their homes. Congo is at a critical point in its history. Despite recent successful elections, government structures remain fragile. The country has relapsed into conflict and chaos.

The humanitarian situation in eastern Congo is among the worst in the world, despite the fact that the country held historic elections in 2006 which allowed people to vote freely for their leaders for the first time. While the elections were an important development for the country, they could not fix all of Congo’s problems. Underlying issues such as disarmament of militias, army reform, and the illegal exploitation of Congo’s mineral wealth continue to cause difficulties.

However, the success of Congo's reconstruction hinges on this district, where the root causes of the conflict – including unequal access to land and unfair sharing of revenues from natural resource exploitation – persist. Without an integrated approach involving national and international institutions and international partners, chaos will not seize in Congo and thousands of women continue to be risk of contracting HIV/AID through sexual and Gender based violence.

There was cautious optimism for peace in North Kivu after the "Goma agreement" was signed on 23 January 2008. The agreement followed negotiations between the government, renegade general Laurent Nkunda and Mai Mai militias, and included a ceasefire, the withdrawal of troops from key areas and the creation of a UN "buffer zone". Militia fighters were to be given amnesty for insurgency or acts of war, but not for war crimes or crimes against humanity. However, the Rwandan Hutu FDLR was not invited to talks and in March the Kinshasa government threatened to forcibly disarm the rebels.

The deal was aimed at ending fighting which had resumed between the insurgents of Laurent Nkunda and the national army in December 2006. Since then, over 370,000 civilians have been displaced in the province. Following the failure to integrate Nkunda's troops into the army, the crisis worsened after May 2007. Fresh outbreaks of fighting have resulted in renewed violence against civilians, including the widespread use of rape as an instrument of war. UN attempts to impose a ceasefire and appoint a special envoy to mediate were unsuccessful.

The various groups have, despite the truce, clashed frequently since the deal was signed, with both Nkunda’s CNDP and the Mai Mai PARECO faction withdrawing from commissions monitoring the deal (Nkunda later rejoined). The UN recorded at least 200 ceasefire violations in the six months between January and July, with August reports suggesting groups were rearming. The humanitarian situation has barely improved. The Congo Advocacy Coalition reported that an additional 150,000 have been displaced since the agreement was signed.

The 2006 national and provincial elections liquidated the RCD politically. Strengthened by his election, Kabila held discreet talks with Nkunda, facilitated by Rwanda, and concluded an agreement for the progressive integration of Nkunda’s troops into the regular armed forces, a process locally known as mixage, with the understanding that they would not have to leave the province until the general security situation improved significantly. But neither Nkunda nor Kabila was able to contain their hardliners opposed to the settlement.

Afraid to become the victims of revenge killings and lose everything they had illegally acquired during the war, Goma-based Tutsi leaders accused Nkunda of betrayal and threatened to stop supporting him. Kabila’s hardliners attacked him over the perceived preferential treatment given to the Tutsi in the army integration process and used the public outcry over the massive human rights violations and displacement of civilians caused by the operations against the FDLR to undermine the agreement’s legitimacy.

Over the past three years, ending the North Kivu conflict has been repeatedly postponed in favour of efforts to consolidate the transition and secure Kabila's election. But North Kivu has been the epicentre of Congo’s violence since the conflict began more than fifteen years ago. Now is the time to address this major gap in the Congolese transition and end a crisis which is causing immense suffering and continues to carry wider risks for Congo and its neighbours.

Congo's present conflict stems from a rebellion started four years ago by renegade general Laurent Nkunda, who claimed the country's transition to democracy had excluded the Tutsi ethnic group. Despite agreeing in January to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, he resumed fighting in August. Nkunda alleges the Congolese government has not protected ethnic Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutu militia that escaped to Congo after helping slaughter half a million Rwandan Tutsis in 1994.

There's virtually no government control over the eastern Congo and much of the conflict there is a scramble at the local level and at the regional level for access to land and the mineral wealth. Congo is awash with gold, diamonds and metals such as cassiterite and coltan which is used in electronics. The area around the eastern provincial capital city of Goma, from which thousands of people fled and government soldiers retreated this week after Nkunda and his forces besieged it, is particularly mineral-rich.

There are several paths to the international market — with most minerals bound for Asian factories where they are used in the manufcture of electronics and devices such as mobile phones and portable music players, according to Colin Thomas-Jensen of Enough Project, a Washington-based human rights organization that carries out field research into various African conflicts including Congo. "Basically, the rebels control the mines. They are selling them to middlemen who sell them to the next buyer and it goes up the chain," he says. He adds, "There have been instances where minerals are simply backpacked ... taken to a small airstrip and taken out of the country by a small plane and presumably sold to a small dealer across the border."

The international value of Congo's raw materials is demonstrated by a $9 billion deal between Congo's state-owned mining company and a consortium of Chinese companies to extract 10.6 million tons of copper and 626,000 tons of cobalt in return for improving infrastructure.

During the 1998-2002 war, current President Joseph Kabila and his father Laurent, who was then president, sold off copper and diamond mining rights to Zimbabwe and Angola in exchange for their support. At that time, the government held the west of the country, while rebels led by Uganda and Rwanda controlled the northeast and east.

Congo isn't unique in having rebels or armed groups exploiting natural resources to fund their campaigns: Nigerian oil, West African diamonds and Afghan opium have all been key revenue sources for warlords.
Global Witness undertook research in the eastern area of Congo — in north and south Kivu which includes Goma in July and August. The group said it uncovered substantial evidence of armed militias opposed to Nkunda working side by side with units and commanders of the Congolese national army, know by its acronym FARDC, in the exploitation and trade of minerals there.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda, known by its French initials FDLR, was "foremost among the armed groups active in the mineral trade," they said. The extremist Rwandan Hutu militia accused of orchestrating neighboring Rwanda's 1994 genocide has fought against Nkunda's rebel forces.
"In South Kivu there was almost an unspoken complicity between FARDC and FDLR," said Parsons. "We found them operating mining sites and operating side by side. Many of the national army are sympathetic and possibly supplying arms to the FDLR." Global Witness found they were involved in trade as well as exploring and mining the ore. "They have really consolidated their economic business," said Parsons. "They have systems entrenched for doing business. Unless their concessions are dealt with, the soldiers, the rebel groups have little reason to leave these areas where of course they are associated with human rights abuses."
Parsons said Global Witness was trying to get companies in Congo and around the world to ask questions about the source of minerals and to get paper records.

Conclusion

It is clear that conflict in Congo that continues to erode women’s dignity stems from failures of the Congo peace process on army integration, economic governance and transitional justice. The illegal exploitation of natural resources continued unabated, and in the process human rights abuses have also continued as tyrannies fight to have control of natural resources. Today, DR Congo is caught in an epidemic of appalling sexual violence. 45,000 people die each month, mostly from hostilities and the crippling effects of widespread displacement in the country’s eastern provinces. Women and girls are routinely subjected to atrocious acts of sexual violence and torture. The war in Congo what is at stake for the women in that country as men continue to fight for minerals? Something needs to be done as matter of urgency to address abuse of women in Congo.

References

1. http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-resolution_1325/congo_2964.jsp
2. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/emergencies/congo/background
3. International Rescue Committee: http://www.theirc.org/special-report/congo-forgotten-crisis.html?gclid=CJLDgfOGnJcCFQOeFQodOV6--w
4. Congo: Consolidating the Peace, Africa Report N°128, 5 July 2007
5. Congo: Staying Engaged after the Elections, 9 January 2007
6. Securing Congo's Elections: Lessons from the Kinshasa Showdown, Africa Briefing N°42, 2 October 2006
7. Escaping the Conflict Trap: Promoting Good Governance in the Congo, Africa Report N°114, 20 July 2006
8. Congo's Elections: Making or Breaking the Peace, Africa Report N°108, 27 April 2006

* Carlyn Hambuba works for the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) in Nairobi-Kenya as a Communications Officer.

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/