Genocide in the Congo: 1885 to the Present

Summary: There have been several acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Conflicts in the region especially surged after the genocide in the neighboring country of Rwanda, triggering two wars in Congo. The lasting effects of the last war contribute to the current humanitarian crisis in Congo.

1885-1960 Belgian Congo

The Congo Free State was a monarchy under Belgium’s control from 1885-1960. But for the first 23 years of the monarchy, the Congo Free State was a private possession of the Belgian King Leopold II. In 1908 he handed over the control of the country to Belgium. During King Leopold’s reign, the estimates of deaths range from 2 to 20 million, but is likely between 10 and 13 million.

The large discrepancy is also due to the lack of evidence and accurate birth records, the estimates determined only by census data from before and after. Determining if people died as a result of colonial rule, slavery, famine, disease epidemics, or other reasons gets tricky. Either way, the genocide in the Congo likely had the highest death toll in a singular African country as a result of colonization.

1996-1997 Hutu Massacres in the First Congo War

Before it was the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was called Zaire, and ethnic tensions and dictatorial regimes triggered wars to break out.

During the first war, between 200,000 and 233,000 people were killed during genocidal massacres between October 1996 and May 1997. It was primarily Hutus who were targeted, an ethnic group indigenous to the Great Lakes region. They were Hutu men, women, and children, from Rwanda, Congo, and Burundi.

This war began in the wake of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, in which up to one million Tutsis, Twas and dissident Hutus were killed in the span of about 100 days. Millions of refugees from Rwanda fled to neighboring countries like Zaire, and many settled in the refugee camps in the Kivu provinces in the northeast of Zaire.

Hutu extremists who fled to Zaire as refugees created militias, and other ethnic groups created militias to oppose them.

Rwandan troops led an offensive to invade Zaire to quash Hutu extremists, fearing that Hutus and Mobutu Sese Seko’s regime in Zaire were a threat to the Tutsis of the Great Lakes region.

In roughly 8 months, up to 233,000 people were killed, an average of up to 970 people a day, they were mostly non-combatant refugees. The massacres of Hutus have been recognized as a genocide.

Congo Base Map by JRC EC, CC BY via Wikimedia Commons

1998-2003 Second Congo War, or Great War of Africa

Nine African countries and 25 armed groups became involved in this war which began after relationships between the governments fell apart. Hutu militias organized at the border of Congo and Rwanda invaded again in 1998.

Estimates of deaths directly related to the war go up to 6 million, mostly due to disease and malnutrition. The Second Congo War was one of the largest and deadliest wars in Africa. There was a definitive military action of ethnic cleansing, after the peace agreement was signed in 2002, but before the war ended in 2003.

2002-2003 Effacer le tableau

The rebel groups carried out an ethnic cleansing operation against the Bambuti pygmies in a small province of northeast Congo; they called it effacer le tableau, which means to “erase the board.”  The military groups called the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo, and the Rally for Congolese Democracy carried out the massacres on people they viewed as subhuman so they could claim the territory in the North Kivu province.

About 40% of the Pygmy population was killed in between October 2002 and January 2003. In 4 months of violence, 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed, an average of up to 583 people a day, and over 100,000 people were displaced. This was an act of genocide.

Early 2000s – present, Mining in the DRC

The current crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not generally considered a genocide, people call it forced labor, child labor, and human trafficking. This modern-day slavery is not often called a genocide, but it does fit the definition. Congolese people are forced by handlers or poverty to work in mineral mines, digging in hazardous conditions, for minerals like copper, diamonds, gold, nickel, lithium, coltan, and cobalt. Cobalt and lithium are used in rechargeable batteries that huge tech companies use in all of our electronics and electric vehicles so the demand for it is high.

Artisanal Miners in Democratic Republic of Congo, by Julien Harneis, 2007, CC BY-SA via Wikimedia Commons

It is called “artisanal mining” but that is just a fancy name for “small scale mining” rather than industrial. What is happening to the Congolese is a genocide if one considers part of the definition of genocide from Article II of the United Nations Genocide Convention. The crisis is “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,” and, “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” making it a genocide.

Author Siddharth Kara traveled to Congo to investigate the human rights violations for his award-winning book, Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives. He witnessed firsthand how the Congolese dig with their hands in hazardous caves, often without protective gear, digging for minerals. There are many minor children who work for over 8 hours a day in those conditions, and are at risk of death, illness, or being maimed in a mining accident. Their handlers or overseers (often criticized as slavers) cause the Congolese serious bodily or mental harm with physical or sexual abuse.

Because of the mining expansions, poverty, threats of violence, and armed conflict, the UNHCR reports that 5.6 million people have been internally displaced. Over 25 million face extreme levels of food insecurity and risk of starvation.

The Congo has a long history of genocide, wars, and human rights violations, but international aid organizations are bringing light to the current crisis which is a lasting result of the Second Congo War and the demand for minerals.