SUMMARY

CNPSC was a mainly Bembe coalition of armed groups united by a desire to oust then-President Joseph Kabila. The coalition was also mixed up in the inter-community tension in the Sud Kivu Province were conflicts appeared repeatedly. Many of them have been explained by the question of identity: are Rwandophones – i.e. speakers of Kinyarwanda and Kirundi legitimate members of the Congolese nation? At the same time conflicts arise between agriculturalists and pastoralists, especially during the transhumance period (the seasonal movement of people with their livestock). Livestock has often caused damage to the farmers’ land, thereby conflicts have evolved over the access to and control of land. At the same time, the different ethnic groups have supported and joined different armed groups and militias in the country supporting different sides in the many conflicts over governmental power that have been ongoing in the country. CNPSC represented the agriculturalists and the autochtone communities in these conflicts, thereby often targeting Banyamulenge, pastoralist communities.

CNPSC first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2019, when the one-sided violence resulted in more than 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached sometime between September and early November of that year when the group attacked civilians in Minembwe town, resulting in 100 deaths.