SUMMARY
The conflict between Hunde and Hutu was mainly fought in the Nord Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire). The Nord Kivu province is situated in the eastern parts of the country bordering Rwanda and Uganda. Much of the land in the Nord Kivu province is fertile and it is more densely populated than other parts of the country. The Nord Kivu province is and has for centuries been inhabited by a broad range of different communities: [Hunde, Nande, Nyanga, Tembo, Kano, Twa, Pere, Hutu, and Tutsi, with the latter two collectively referred to as Banyarwanda. Before colonization these communities were governed differently in different chiefdoms. And under the colonial administration these chieftaincies were absorbed by the new power and in some cases re-drawn into Sectors and in some cases importing new chiefs. The Belgians also made a distinction between the indigenous/autochthonous tribes of the area who were entitled to holding land and the foreigners; oftentimes being those of Rwandan descent (Hutu and Tutsi), who were not entitled to holding land. At the same time all land belonged to the colonial power and they could expropriate customary land to lease or sell it to plantation-owners.
During the colonial rule the plantation-owners needed labor on their farms. To meet this demand labor workers were recruited in neighboring Rwanda. In some areas of the Nord Kivu Province this wave of immigration changed the ethnic balance of the area. In total it is believed that between 150 000 and 300 000 Hutu and Tutsi immigrants moved to Nord Kivu during the colonial period. After independence these shifts have been one of the roots of conflicts in the area. While the indigenous communities have kept the customary power and the right over land, the Hutu and Tutsi have been more numerous and therefore a threat to the indigenous/autochthonous power in a democratic system. Different laws regulating citizenship have granted or ripped the Hutu and Tutsi communities of their rights aggravating the situation. Under the Mobutu Zairianisation process the big plantations were nationalized and then granted to close allies of president Mobutu according to his patronage system of ruling the country. Hutu and Tutsi elite managed to buy land during this period and consequently managed to gain economic power.
In this context we should see the conflict between Hunde and Hutu. The relations between the Hunde and the Hutu population in Nord Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo worsened fast after the country's independence from Belgium in 1960. Pre-independence tensions between the Hutu and the Hunde already existed, since the Hutu had access to land, whereas the Hunde had to give up their land to the Belgians, which in turn gave the land to the Hutu. Yet, the Hunde were politically always supreme to the Hutu.
This division between land and power continued after independence. The Hunde used the fact that the Hutu did not participate in the regional, provincial and national elections after independence to rise to the top positions in the administrations in Goma and Leopoldville. This meant that the Hunde now had political supremacy over the Hutu population of Nord Kivu. They used this control to subvert the political rising of Hutu and increased the imposition of tributes (cows, chickens, goats, and farm products).
The Hunde political power and the way they used it to manipulate Hutu was a major source of frustration for the Hutu. The first armed confrontation between the two groups occurred as early as 1962, when the Hutu population of Muvunyi-Kibabi stood up against the oppressive rule of the Hunde regime. (This cannot be found in the UCDP database since the non-state conflicts are coded as of 1989). The outbreak of violence led to heavy discussions on a provincial and national level. To ensure the submission of the Hutu in Nord Kivu, the Hunde introduced even more oppressive rules using the police, tribunals but also the prisons. This did not lead to the desired result: on the eve of the 1965 elections renewed violence broke out, leading to an intervention by the army. This action led to unprecedented repression and indiscriminate killings of Hutu men, women, and children.
Under Mobutu's dictatorship, the Hunde kept their authoritative position over the Hutu. Mobutu's regime favored customary authorities, which was beneficial for the Hunde. The Hunde started imposing illegal and extremely high taxes on peasants houses and equipment. At points, they evicted Hutu from their houses and land, resulting in an occasional minor outbreak of violence.
Relations further deteriorated when Mobutu decided to have country-wide hearings in 1990, which led to open and major outbursts of critique against his regime. In April 1990 Mobutu recognized the failure of his regime and opened up the country towards multiparty democracy. This had huge effects on the always present tensions between the Hunde and Hutu in Nord Kivu. The Hunde, who feared losing their power-status aimed at excluding the Hutu from any national debate of forum, while the Hutu feared to remain subordinate to the Hunde. The Hutu population started to openly resist the Hunde authorities, which led to open conflict in certain groupements. In 1993, the conflict intensified when the Hunde, together with the Nyanga - a smaller ethnicity, aimed to chase the Hutu out from Walikale and Masisi territories. This violence spread soon all over the region. Whereas the violence started as a one-sided massacre by Hutus, it soon changed into an armed confrontation between the two ethnicities.
The non-state conflict between the Hunde and the Hutu is first included in UCDP data in 1993. In April of that year armed confrontations between the two groups led to more than 25 battle-related deaths.
