SUMMARY
The one-sided violence by the Mayi Mayi - Ngilima or Bangilima was perpetrated 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, Nyanga, Tembo, Kano, Twa, Pere, and Hutu and Tutsi. 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 new wave of immigration changed the ethnic balance. In total it is believed that 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 in a democratic Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire). 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 manage to by land during this period and consequently manage to gain economic power.
In this context we should see the one-sided violence by Mayi Mayi - Ngilima or Bangilima. The group was part of the local conflict in North Kivu province of DRC (Zaire) between the Banyarwanda (i.e. the people who speak the language of Rwanda, Kinyarwanda here the Hutu and Tutsi population in North Kivu) and the autochthonous tribes. The group was one of the ethnic militias in North Kivu with a goal to exterminate foreigners.
The Banyarwanda was considered to be foreigners in the eyes of Bangilima, although they had settled in North Kivu ages ago. Many Banyarwandan had come to the region beginning in the mid-20th century as the Belgian colonizers acquired help in the growing plantation agriculture. 1963-65 the Kinyarwanda war was fought between Banyarwanda and the autochthonous tribes over the control over land and representation in local administrations. Under the regimes of both Mobutu and Kabila, Banyarwanda has been excluded from citizenship and thereby deprived of any land rights. In 1972 a law granted Zairean nationality to the Banyarwanda this provoked the autochthonous tribes. And the law was repelled in 1981 when the Zairean parliament passed a new law limiting the Banyarwandas nationality rights. In this context the ethnic violence emerged and ethnic militias started to form themselves.
In 1993 the Bangilima militia attacked Hutu and Tutsi civilians with guns, machetes and spears and burned down hundreds of homes. In 1994 and 1995 the Bangilima continued to threaten the Banyarwanda in northern Rutshuru district. In 1996 the conflict intensity escalated and the armed forces of Zaire (FAZ) launched an operation named Mbata in Rutchuru in order to stop increasing attacks by Bangilima. The first fighting between Bangilima and the FAZ occurred in mid-May 1996 in Rwindi National Park, Vitshumbi and Kiberizi. FAZ managed to press Bangilima towards Masisi.
Mayi Mayi - Ngilima first became active as a one-sided actor in the UCDP data in 1996, when the one-sided violence resulted in more than 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in October of that year when the group attacked a number of villages in the Nord Kivu province of DR Congo (Zaire) killing 50 people and forcing 9000 Banyarwandan villagers to flee their homes.
