The Democratic Republic of Congo continues to prove to every one how it is a failed state. In the effort to keep themselves into power, the Congolese authorities have once again led the country into another wave of mass killings of civilians and the destruction of properties.
While in Southern Kivu (Eastern Congo), it is the Banyamulenge who continue to be victims of attack by militias, not only killing but also destroying and burning their villages while the government remain silent, in Kasai, things are getting worse.
The real question is how long will the international community take for it to return to its senses and admit that the Congolese experiment has been a total failure? that the country is a failed state? Since, its independence, the country has never been governed as other countries. Regime after regime, each government made it worse off than its predecessor, and things continue to get even worse off. Government either support militias, including foreign ones such as interahamwe/fdlr, and imbonerakure from Burundi) or choose to be observers while villages are being decimated by militias.
The people have suffered enough with vicious cycle of wars, insecurity and poverty in one of the largest and most richest countries in minerals. Not only have the Congolese so called leaders have failed to govern the country due to their political incompetence and corruption, but unfortunately the hypocritical world of so called civilized nations responsible for Congo's misery in the first place have demonstrated their social and moral corruption by choosing to exploit the minerals of a slowly dying country at the expenses of its people. The rich any region in the Congo is, the deeper its calamities get, and the richer the pockets of leaders both Congolese and westerners get.
Coming back to the fate of people in Kasai, the information below was publish in the Rfi articles, sheds more light on the issue:
The UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights last week called for an international probe into abuses in the
Democratic Republic of Congo's southern Kasai region, following murder,
mutilation and rape and the death of a tribal chief and militia leader.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said
the list should include summary executions, killings of children, recruitment
of child soldiers and sexual violence.
Hundreds of people have been
killed, many of them mutilated, and 1.3 million displaced, according to the UN,
since government forces killed Kamwina Nsapu, a tribal chief and militia leader
in August last year.
Victims include militia fighters,
civilians, members of the security forces and two UN experts investigating mass
graves. American Michael Sharp and Swedish-Chilean Zaida Catalan, were
kidnapped on 12 March.
Their bodies were found 16
days later - Catalan had been decapitated and her head was never found.
So who was Kamwina
Nsapu?
His name was Jean-Prince
Mpandi. He was the sixth Kamwina Nsapu, the traditional chief of the Bajila
Kasanga, in Kasai-Central Province.
Few details are known about
his life.
He was at agricultural college
in Katanga's city of Lubumbashi but dropped out before completing his studies;
In 2004-2005 he opened a
traditional medicine clinic in Tshikapa, in Kasai. He claimed he had studied
with Chinese doctors and had even been to China. However, he also said he was a
veterinary surgeon.
He has ties with South
Africa, where his family lives.
It was only recently that
Mpandi attracted the attention of the authorities.
In January this year newly
appointed Vice-Interior Minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadari told parliament the
government had found a 2016 document signed by Kamwina Nsapu calling on the
province's youths to kick out all foreigners, except for diplomats, from so-called
Greater Kasai.
Sources told RFI that he
increased his influence through ritual ceremonies.
It was Ntenda, one of his
cousins, who reportedly accused Kamwina Nsapu of preparing to launch an
insurrection. The security forces raided his home while he was in South Africa.
On his return he had barricades set up around his home - but had them
dismantled after talks with the authorities.
However, in July 2016 a mob
attacked Ntenda, killed at least six people and burnt down some 100 homes.
Mpandi denied his supporters were involved.
The crisis accelerated when
the Kamwina Nsapu and his militia stormed the town of Tshimbulu. Five police
officers were among the nine people killed. Most offical buildings were razed
to the ground during the attack.
On 11 August he was given an
ultimatum to surrender. The next day, government security forces shot him
dead.
But violence has increased
since his death, with both sides accused of murder, mutilation, rape, and
destruction of property.
Source: Radio France internationale
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