SUMMARY
The one-sided violence perpetrated by the Katuku militia took place in the early 1990s in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), during a period of rapid state collapse and intensifying ethnic polarization. Political liberalization under Mobutu's crumbling regime and the closing of the National Sovereign Conference in 1992 led to a breakdown of national authority and the rise of ethnic militias. The Katuku, a predominantly Nyanga self-defense group based in Walikale territory, emerged amid escalating tensions between Nyanga, Hunde, and Tembo communities on one side, and Hutu-Banyarwanda settlers on the other. These tensions were rooted in longstanding grievances over land, perceived demographic encroachment, and political marginalization. The Katuku played a key role in a broader Hunde-Nyanga offensive launched in March 1993 with the goal of forcibly removing Hutu-Banyarwanda settlers from Walikale and neighboring Masisi.
While no formal statements from the Katuku have been documented, the broader Nyanga and Hunde leadership at the time reportedly framed the Hutu-Banyarwanda as foreign interlopers or occupiers, whose presence posed an existential threat to "autochthonous" communities. The very name "Katuku", meaning autochthone, reflected this ideological claim to indigeneity and exclusivity over territory. Their attacks were thus understood by many insiders as a preemptive or purifying action to reclaim ancestral land and reassert ethnic dominance. Propaganda and community mobilization often portrayed the violence as a necessary defense against "Rwandan invaders" and collaborators.
The Katuku militia, often acting in coordination with Hunde fighters and other Mayi-Mayi formations, engaged in massacres, village burnings, market attacks, and targeted assassinations of Hutu civilians. The violence was characterized by close-range killings using rifles, machetes, spears, arrows, and blunt objects. On 20 March 1993, Katuku massacred an estimated 50 Hutu-Banyarwanda civilians in Ntoto village, Walikale territory, during a market day assault. The next day, they attacked Buoye village, killing dozens of people as they exited Catholic and Protestant churches. Many victims drowned in the Lowa River while trying to flee. Other attacks occurred in Ramba market, where Hutu civilians were again deliberately targeted, and in Katale, where communal tensions exploded after the assassination of a local Hutu. The scale of violence in early 1993 escalated quickly and the one-sided violence by this group became intermixed into broader communal violence.
The Katuku's violence was concentrated in Kalehe territory in Sud Kivu and Walikale territory in Nord Kivu, particularly around Ntoto.
Katuku first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1993, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached on 20 March 1993 Katuku massacred an estimated 50 Hutu-Banyarwanda civilians in Ntoto village, Walikale territory, during a market day assault.
