SUMMARY
The conflict between the two ethnic groups Hema and Lendu was situated in Ituri in the north-eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The province of Ituri is made up of several ethnic groups; Lendu, Hema (Hema-Gegere from the north and Hema-Nyoro from the south), Alur, Bira, Nyari, Mambisa, Ndo-Okebo, Lugbwara, Kakwa, Logo, Lese and Ngiti (also known as Lendu-Bindi); and the province has considerable natural wealth. The competition over land and these resources was a major factor of the crisis in Ituri. The conflict between the ethnic groups Hema and Lendu had been present for years, the groups had clashed over land in 1972, 1985 and 1996 and a new land conflict spurred the worst violence between the two ethnic groups in 1998. The conflict escalated in the summer of 1999. In mid-August 1998, Uganda (who was supporting groups fighting the government of DR Congo in the DR Congo: Government conflict) took control of the Ituri district. Like the rest of Orientale Province, Ituri was placed under RCD(Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie, Congolese Rally for Democracy) administration. Following the movements split, in March 1999, into a pro-Rwandan branch and a pro-Ugandan branch, Ituri was integrated into the pro-Ugandan RCD–ML (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie–Mouvement de Libération, Congolese Rally for Democracy–Liberation Movement) zone and administered from Kisangani. In June 1999 a commander of the Ugandan army (UPDF), Brigadier General James Kazini, in the Congo created a separate province of Ituri with Bunia as its capital. He named a Hema to head the new administration. Lendu then accused Uganda and RCD–ML of favouring Hema and violence broke out. Both Hema and Lendu communities targeted villages inhabited by the other community in tit-for-tat massacres. A person from neither of the rival groups replaced the governor in November 2000. But the fighting resumed when the Ugandan army replaced him with another Hema governor in December 2000. In the central parts of Ituri there is enmity between Lendu and the Gerere (or northern Hema). In the southern parts the southern Hema fight against Lendu and the Ngiti.
In January 2002 violence escalated further in the Uganda-controlled territories of the DR Congo. The Hema-Lendu conflict was further fueled when it merged with a leadership conflict in one of the rebel factions, the RCD–ML. The RCD–ML of Nyamwisi allegedly supported the Lendu tribe, while the UPC (Union des Patriotes Congolais, Union of Congolese Patriots) – a RCD–ML faction created in July 2001 by Thomas Lubanga – was fighting for the Hema. Shifting support from Uganda, Rwanda and the DR Congo has also played a large part in the conflict. In 2002 Uganda supported the UPC, but its allegiance shifted at several occasions and most of the groups involved in the Ituri conflict were at some point armed, trained or supported by Uganda. Rwanda, meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Luanda accord started to support the UPC as a means to retain influence in the region. With UPC aligned to Rwanda, Uganda instead shifted its support to the Lendu militias in 2003. Kinshasa has mainly tried to assert itself in Ituri through support for RCD-K-ML and Lendu groups.
Both Hema and Lendu militias have claimed to be protecting civilians of their own group against violence perpetrated by the other side, and both groups have invoked fears of extermination, comparing the situation to that in Rwanda. Fear and rumours have been used to mobilise fighters, leading to pre-emptive strikes and reprisal attacks. On 10 August 2002, the UPC seized Bunia, and the following day a UPC spokesman declared that the Bunia offensive was launched to protect Hema civilians. Large-scale massacres performed by both ethnic groups followed the Bunia fighting. On 6 September 2002 the Luanda accord was signed giving a timetable for the Ugandan army to leave Ituri. The day before the Luanda accord, the worst massacre of the whole period was performed when Lendu massacred the town of Nyankunde. In November 2002 FNI (Front nationalist et intégrationist, Front for National Integration) was created assembling most Lendu militias. It cooperated with another Ituri militia, FRPI (Forces de résistance patriotiques en Ituri, Patriotic Force of Resistance in Ituri), in pushing the UPC out of Bunia in 2003. After the departure of Ugandan troops in May 2003, Lendu started to attack Hema civilians in the town and a week with ethnic cleansing widespread looting even at the MONUC (United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo) compound followed. Lendu controlled Bunia until 12 May when the Hema UPC retook the town. The UPC replicated the Lendu atrocities. However, not only Bunia was touched by the ethnic violence; by 2003 the original dispute had expanded both in numbers of people and size of the area affected.
On 19 February 2003 six mainly Lendu armed groups in Ituri signed a ceasefire agreement, but the Hema UPC refused to sign. In June 2003 the European Union (EU) sent in peacekeepers under the “Operation Artemis” to Bunia. The peacekeepers managed to restore security in the town, although massacres continued in the countryside. In November 2003 the MONUC Ituri brigade took over from the EU operation. In December 2003, the UPC split and after 2003 clashes between the two groups became rare even though they continued to attack civilians.
In 2017 a new wave of attacks between Hema and Lendu affected the Djugu territory of Ituri broke out. On 10 June 2017, Florent Dunji, a Lendu Catholic priest, was found dead in Drodro village. Officially he died of alcoholism, but rumors in the Lendu community said that he was killed. In reaction Lendu youths from Walendu Tatsi attacked Hema villages triggering a response from the Hema community burning down Lendu villages. The tit-for-tat violence escalated with attacks and counter attacks along community lines. The violence escalated further in February - March 2018. In 2019 it became increasingly clear that the main perpetrator of the violence in Djugu and Mahagi was a group called URDPC a Lendu militia led by Ngudjolo Mapa Innocent.
The non-state conflict between Hema and Lendu is first included in UCDP data in 1999. In June of that year fighting between Hema and Lendu in Djugu resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
