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 is 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 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, FRPI(Front Nationalist et Integrationist, Front for National Integration, and Forces de Résistance Patriotique d’Ituri, Patriotic Force of Resistance in Ituri) and the UPC (Union des Patriotes Congolais, Union of Congolese Patriotes) can also be considered as a Hema - Lendu conflict. Both the FNI and FRPI were Lendu militias, and the UPC’s members are all Hema’s.
The confrontation between the FNI, FRPI and UPC occurred before the Ugandans withdrew from Ituri. Since international pressure on Uganda to withdraw from Ituri was rising, the Ugandans sought to maximize the territorial control as of their allies before leaving the country. In this light, on 6 March 2003, the Ugandan's reported a UPC attack against their base in Ndele. Together with the FNI, FRPI the Ugandans responded by attacking the UPC in Bunia. At dawn, the Ugandan army started shelling UPC forces in Bunia with heavy artillery. The coalition of FNI, FRPI came into Bunia from the North, while the Ugandan army came in from the south. The UPC resistance collapsed quickly, and members of the UPC fled in all directions, chased by Lendu militiamen.
It was clear that the FNI, FRPI, supported by Ugandan forces, had the military overhand. They ware capable of using heavy artillery, equipment that the UPC did not have access to. In general, weapons used by both sides include modern weapons as AK-47 and Kalashnikov rifles but also machetes, spears, and arrows.
The non-state conflict between FNI, FRPI and UPC is first included in UCDP data in 2003. In March of that year, a battle for the control over Bunia resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.
