DR Congo Ex-Rebels Seize Control of Mines

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In recent investigations in the provinces of North and South Kivu, the campaign group discovered that former rebels from the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) who were integrated into the national army, are running violent extortion rackets which prey on the civilian population they are supposed to be protecting.

For more than a decade, the country’s mineral wealth has provided a cash base to fuel conflict and encouraged complicity from neighboring countries and other key players.

Last year, the UN joined the Congolese national army in a concerted push against the notorious rebels of the Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) who controlled the mines.

The joint offensives, which resulted in shockingly high civilian casualties, broke the FDLR’s stranglehold over many lucrative mining areas.

A predominantly Rwandan Hutu armed group, some of whose leaders allegedly participated in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the FDLR has been committing atrocities against the civilians of the DRC for a decade.

It has waged a campaign of extreme sexual violence against women in eastern Congo, and is also guilty of murder, extortion, recruitment of child soldiers and employing forced labour.

Brigades largely made up of former CNDP fighters are also in charge of Bisie, the largest tin-ore mine in eastern Congo Until recently it was held by another Congolese army brigade, also guilty of numerous abuses and violence against civilians.

Source: Allafrica