Kinshasa – A predatory system hidden behind political motivations. This is how various missionary sources from North and South Kivu, the two eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, largely occupied by M23/AFC militiamen, describe the situation. Despite recent agreements aimed at restoring peace and returning control of the territory to the Congolese government , the conditions of the local populations remain dire, according to the report sent to Fides.
NB: For security reasons, the names of those who agreed to give their testimony have been changed.
“Antoine had a degree in International Law and was a neighborhood leader in Goma, in North Kivu. When the M23/AFC troops arrived in January, like many other colleagues, he was forced to undergo “pedagogical” and military training to join the armed ranks of the occupiers, as a local defender of his neighborhood.
Although he was a civilian, he was placed in command of some militiamen. On Wednesday, October 1, his family received news of his death: he had been ambushed along with a dozen other people, in unclear circumstances into which no investigation has been opened. Antoine, who was not yet forty, leaves behind nine children. Another witness recounts: “Louis was a young man from Goma. At the beginning of October, he and four other young men, along with two girls, were forcibly loaded into an M23 military vehicle and driven out of the city, where they were brutally beaten. They were later transferred in critical condition to the central prison, where Louis died.” Thus, day after day, under the M23/AFC occupation, many Congolese die whose only desire was to live in peace. The situation in Bukavu is no different. Violence is used as an instrument of political and social control, and as a means to exploit local economic resources. Reliable sources report that, for weeks now, the sale of cement—an essential product for construction—has become the exclusive monopoly of the wife of Sultani Makenga, military leader of the M23/AFC movement.
Independent traders have been ordered to stop all activities related to the import or sale of cement. Any attempt at resistance is brutally repressed. Warehouses have been closed, and stocks have been confiscated without explanation, moving them to unknown destinations. “Anyone who dares to obtain supplies elsewhere is arrested… We don’t know what will become of them,” one trader says, his voice trembling. Economic operators grouped in the Federation of Congolese Enterprises and the Kivu Association of Construction Materials Importers acknowledge living in a climate of constant fear. No official dares to speak publicly, for fear of reprisals against themselves or their families. The illegal appropriation of the cement trade is bringing to its knees an entire sector already weakened by insecurity and arbitrary taxes. Prices are skyrocketing, construction work is paralyzed, and the population is paying the high price of a mafia-like system imposed by force of arms. The M23/AFC claims to defend a political cause, but in practice it acts as a true predatory organization. By turning a basic necessity into a source of personal enrichment, the movement strengthens its economic control over South Kivu at the expense of its citizens. While fear silences local voices, the national and international communities remain deafeningly silent. “For how much longer?!” the Congolese ask.
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