Home » Countries » Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Conflict History

The war within the DRC has been compared to the Second World War and the holocaust (Turner, 2007:2), mainly because of the large number of deaths due to the war.  Its death toll from 1997 to 2001 has been estimated at 3,8 million (Turner, 2007:2), although various estimates between 900,000 and 5.4 million have been offered (Butty, 2010).  The war has also been called “a war against women” (Braeckman, in Turner, 2007:3), due to the high number of female deaths and the atrocious treatment of women by all fighting groups.

In 1996 armed forces invaded the DRC via the province of South Kivu.  While the invasion ostentatiously started as a local attempt to oust Hutu militias who had fled their after the Rwandan genocide, the invading group soon declared themselves the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) and continued to infiltrate the DRC.  The AFDL included four groups that opposed the current Mobutu regime and one of their leaders was Laurent Kabila.  Rwanda, it has been said, used these local groups “to provide a (Congolese) face for what was in fact an invasion” (Turner, 2007:4-5).

The AFDL was successful and in May 1997 Mobutu fled and Kabila became president.  But quickly his relationship with his international and national support base deteriorated.  Thus, in 1998, there was an attempt to overthrow Kabila, which led to a second war.  In 2001 Kabila was assassinated and his son – Joseph – became president.  He called for peace talks and 2002 a ceasefire agreement was signed by all parties involved in the war (Turner, 2007: 5-8).

Some see these two wars as civil wars; others see them as international wars because of Rwandan, Ugandan and other international involvement at various levels (Turner, 2007:8).  The fact remains that the DRC is not yet at peace.  Especially North and South Kivu have frequent outbreaks of fighting, with many different rebel groups still present and fighting within the region.  The UN peacekeeping envoy, MANUC, is still present, although its withdrawal is planned.

While peace was officially declared in the DRC in 2002, fighting is still continuing.  Research participants revealed that SV is rife, ongoing, and targeting all women, regardless of age or ethnicity.  The SV is generally very violent, resulting in extensive physical trauma.  While perpetrators are mostly fighters, civilians also commit SV and perpetrators are rarely caught, prosecuted or punished.  SV survivors experience large-scale rejection and stigmatisation, by partner, family and community and receive very little support of any form.  While the research participants believe that the church can play an important role in addressing SV and its consequences, it is currently not doing so.