Congolese rebels behead cops in reign of terror
VIOLENCE in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo appears to be escalating significantly, as reports emerged at the weekend of the decapitation of 42 police officers tasked with fighting a regional militia known as Kamuina Nsapu.
The group is also suspected of having kidnapped an American man, a Swedish woman and four Congolese working with the UN to investigate recent clashes between the militia and government forces.
The UN deployed Uruguayan and Tanzanian peacekeepers on a search-and-rescue mission two weeks ago, but they are complaining of obstructionism from the Congolese government.
In addition, Catholic priests have fled into the bush following a reign of terror and victimisation by the militants who declare themselves loyal to slain tribal leader Kamuina Nsapu. Priests from four dioceses in the south-central Kasaï, which is worst affected by the fighting between the armed forces of the DRC and the militia, have fled their bases in Kananga, Luebo, Luiza and Mbuji-Mayi.
This comes after the recent deaths of several people and massive destruction and burning of houses, schools and buildings of the Catholic Church. The plundering of a parish in the diocese of Luiza has also caused more displacements as scores of refugees had found sanctuary at the facility after feeling their homes.
Nsapu’s men are blamed for the upheavals that have led to the displacement of thousands of people, most of them children, who alongside the elderly, disabled and pregnant women are most vulnerable.
The Kasai region is exceptionally poor and remote. No one from the vast region has ever led the DRC and it is the home province of the recently deceased opposition leader Étienne Tshisekedi.
Across the Congo, ethnic tension has combined with feelings of regional neglect to produce multiple large-scale conflicts over the past two decades.
The recent fighting in Kasai has followed a familiar trajectory.
In early 2016, members of the regionally dominant Luba ethnic group named Jean-Pierre Mpandi as their “Kamuina Nsapu” or hereditary chieftain.
Mpandi was seen as being politically at odds with the provincial governor, and animosity and suspicion quickly grew between them. Mpandi’s camp was raided while he was away on the assumption that he was hoarding weapons. In turn, he called on his followers to take up arms against any and all representatives of the state.
On August 12, Mpandi was killed in a gun battle with security forces.
Since then, more than 400 people have died and 200 000 have been displaced in spiralling violence. The disappearance of American Michael Sharp, Swedish Zaida Catalan and their local associates on March 12 was the first time UN workers had been kidnapped in Congo, according to Human Rights Watch. This suggests that the conflict in Kasai may be more generally aimed at outsiders, rather than having narrower ethnic motivations.
On Saturday, the UN mission in Congo, Monusco, expressed frustration with the government and “serious concern over restrictions placed on its freedom of movement by security forces in Kananga”, referring to one of the region’s major urban centres.