SUMMARY
The Ituri province, a region in the north-eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) has been a foci of fierce conflicts and violence targeting civilians. Most of the violence, perpetrated by a vast number of more or less organized groups, sprung from a land conflict between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups but evolved more and more into a regional conflict over resources. The Lendu are one of the largest ethnicities in Ituri, with a size of between 750 000 and 1 million people, whereas the Hema are remarkably smaller with a size of between 300 000 and 400 000 people.
Tensions between the Hema and Lendu can be led back to pre-colonial times, although most of the time they have lived peacefully alongside each other. The first violence between the groups was reported already in 1880, although the oral history in the region often state 1911 as the first main clash between the groups. Under the Belgian colonizers the Hema were favored. They had access to higher positions and got better chances for education. The Lendu were mainly treated as a manual labor force. When the decolonization process started, the Hema minority remained in place as the elite, with at times even employing the Lendu as their servants. Tensions between the Hema and Lendu led to violent conflict in 1973, 1990, and 1997. The major conflict in Ituri started however in 1999. In that year, a commander of the Ugandan army, General James Kazini created a separate province of Ituri with Bunia as its capital. He then appointed a Hema as the province top-administrator triggering the violence.
The magnitude of violence after 1999 cannot be compared to the conflicts in earlier years. The different ethnicities in the province started to organize themselves, first into ethnic militias, then into rebel groups, allied to regional players in the main DRC intrastate war before splintering and forming new alliances across ethnicities. While the conflict over land and local power has been the prime reason for violence, the presence of gold and other minerals in Ituri has been the reason for the continuation of fighting. Ituri’s war officially ended with peace agreements in 2005 and 2006, but some armed group activity persisted most of it by groups just as opposed to the disarmament process.
The conflict between the FNI (Front Nationalist et Integrationist, Front for National Integration) and PUSIC (Parti pour lunité et la Sauvegarde de lintégrité du Congo, Party for Unity and Safeguarding of the Integrity of Congo) can also be considered as a conflict between a Hema and Lendu militia. The FNI was predominantly Lendu, whereas the PUSIC consisted mainly out of Southern Hema’s.
The conflict between FNI and PUSIC consisted out of two main events; the first occurred in early March 2003, when the FNI attacked Mandro, a village in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mandro had been a UPC stronghold since the beginning of the conflict, and since February 2003 the PUSIC considered the village as a ‘bastion’. Mandro was also the birthplace of PUSIC leader chief Kawa. The attack on Mandro started early in the morning, and only lasted a few hours. FNI militiamen not only killed PUSIC soldiers but also many civilians. Furthermore, they kidnapped some civilians to transport the looted goods for them.
The second event in this dyad happened in May 2003, when the FNI militia launched a major offensive against Tchomia village, which hosted a PUSIC military camp and was under PUSIC control at the time. The attack was seen as a revenge for an earlier PUSIC attack. The FNI elements chased PUSIC troops out of Tchomia in just a few hours and destroyed their military camps. FNI had not only aimed at members of PUSIC, but they also directly targeted civilians, moving from house to house, and even killing people inside the hospital. In order to prevent people from escaping, they blocked all access roads to Tchomia. Around 300 villagers were killed in the attack. PUSIC accused the Congolese military of siding with the FNI during this attack, whereas the rebel group itself most probably had the support of the Ugandan army.
In general it appears like the FNI had the overhand in the battles it fought against PUSIC. Both instances it managed to win the territory in relatively little time.
The non-state conflict between FNI and PUSIC is first included in UCDP data in March 2003. An attack on Mandro village in April of that year resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
