Special Forces of the Congo (FARDC) Deployed in Northern Katanga

 The Congolese government has deployed three hundred men and women of the special force of the Armed Forces of  DRC (FARDC) in the Nyunzu, located 190 km west of Kalemie (Katanga), where inter-communal conflicts is taking place between Bantus and Bambuti (Pygmies).


The commander of the operational sector of northern Katanga, General Abdallah Nyembo, said the soldiers were tasked to stabilise this region plagued with recurring clashes between the two communities.

The military command is already planning joint patrols with MONUSCO in the region to put an end to insecurity in this part of Katanga.
The provincial Minister of Interior for Katanga, Juvenal Kitungwa announced, there five days, the government's desire to strengthen the manpower of the army and police to restore peace between Bantus and Pygmies in Nyunzu .

The conflict has resulted into more than 200 deaths between pygmies and Bantu
About 113 localities were burnt, 200 people were killed and sixty women raped since January as a result of conflicts between pygmies and Bantus in the Nyunzu.

Since colonial times, cohabitation has never been easy between the two, with the Bantus accused of exploiting the Pygmies, paying them meagre wages, or in alcohol and cigarettes, and generally treating them as inferior beings.

In the past, the two communities pygmies and Bantus have managed to reconcile. However, its very common for Bantu to discriminate and abuse pygmies-the exploitation for cheap/slave labour is the the norm, and the government has failed to address the abuse that Pygmies suffer from 90% of Congolese.
The biggest abuse of Bambuti (pygmies) is in North Kivu were you find many families have been forced to live in No man's land along the Uganda-Rwanda-Congo border.



We hope the Government of Joseph Kabila will put in place a special inquiry and program to address the plight of Bambuti (Pygmies)