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U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2000 - Congo-Kinshasa

Congo-Kinshasa (also known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire) had produced some 240,000 refugees and asylum seekers by the end of 1999: approximately 100,000 in Tanzania, about 40,000 in Zambia, some 35,000 in Rwanda, nearly 15,000 in Angola, 15,000 in Congo-Brazzaville, some 15,000 in Central Africa Republic, about 8,000 in Uganda, some 7,000 in various European countries, 3,000 in Sudan, and about 1,000 each in Burundi, Benin, and Cameroon.

An estimated 800,000 people were internally displaced within Congo-Kinshasa.

Some 235,000 refugees from neighboring countries were in Congo-Kinshasa at year's end: about 150,000 from Angola, an estimated 50,000 from Sudan, approximately 20,000 from Burundi, some 10,000 from Congo-Brazzaville, and about 5,000 from Uganda.

An estimated 30,000 or more Rwandans were in Congo-Kinshasa living in refugee-like circumstances. Their refugee status remained undetermined, pending eventual assessment of their asylum claims by authorities.

Pre-1999 Events

A seven-month civil war ousted long-time President Mobutu Sese Seko and his oppressive regime in 1997 and installed rebel-leader Laurent Kabila as the country's new president. Kabila and his rebel allies received substantial military support from Rwanda and Uganda, which supplied troops and supplies in the military campaign to overthrow Mobutu and flush Rwandan insurgents from their bases in Congo-Kinshasa. Rwandan troops allegedly killed thousands of Rwandan refugees in Congo-Kinshasa during the war.

Kabila's young government received mixed reactions from Congolese citizens and the international community in the first half of 1998. The government received credit for stabilizing inflation, reducing petty corruption, improving security in urban areas, and facilitating development projects in localities long ignored by the previous government.

The Kabila regime, however, was widely criticized for suspending political parties, failing to establish a functioning judicial system, restricting human rights, and blocking a UN investigation into the deaths of Rwandan refugees during the war.

Relations between Kabila and his foreign allies turned bitter in 1998. Kabila directed Rwanda to withdraw its troops from his country's eastern region. Rwandan leaders charged that policies pursued by the Kabila government in eastern Congo threatened Rwanda's national security, and that the Congolese government was secretly training Rwandan ethnic-Hutu insurgents who had committed genocide in Rwanda four years earlier.

Rwandan and Ugandan troops invaded Congo in August 1998 and, with local Congolese allies, launched a war to overthrow the Kabila government. The war rapidly degenerated into what one report called "a continent-wide free-for-all." Troops from eight neighboring countries and at least seven insurgent groups entered the rapidly escalating conflict on both sides.

Rwandan and Ugandan troops and their Congolese allies rapidly seized about one-third of the country, including several strategic towns. Combatants committed massacres and other human rights abuses against civilian populations, particularly in areas of eastern Congo.

Hundreds of thousands of Congolese - perhaps as many as 1 million - fled their homes in late 1998 for periods ranging from a few days to many months. By the end of 1998, an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Congolese remained internally displaced. At least 30,000 Congolese became new refugees in neighboring countries, joining 100,000 Congolese refugees who had fled Congo-Kinshasa in previous years and decades.

Warfare and Politics in 1999

Warfare continued during 1999 despite a tentative peace accord signed in July. By year's end, insurgent troops controlled about 60 percent of the country's vast territory, particularly in the eastern and northern regions.

The war became a conflict "of almost impenetrable complexity," as one news report phrased it. Allies clashed against each other as well as against opposing forces. The main rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), split into two factions, one backed by Uganda, the other backed by Rwanda. Clashes between Rwandan and Ugandan troops - erstwhile allies - in the northern city of Kisangani reportedly killed 200 soldiers in August.

Several new rebel groups materialized, most noteworthy being the Congolese Liberation Movement, which captured sizable territory in the country's north. Approximately 20 armed groups participated in the war during the year. Analysts increasingly described the war as a conflict of loosely connected armies each seeking control over Congo's lucrative gold and diamond mines, coffee crops, and other local resources.

"A purely military solution appears to be impossible," the UN secretary general reported in July. A UN Security Council resolution urged all "uninvited forces" to withdraw from the country in the interest of peace.

The country's virtual anarchy and flood of weaponry also unleashed local ethnic hostilities, resulting in an estimated 7,000 deaths in battles over traditional land rights between ethnic Hema and ethnic Lendu in Orientale Province in the country's north.

Large numbers of Congolese - including many who opposed the Kabila government's domestic policies - viewed the conflict not as a civil war but primarily as an invasion by Rwanda and Uganda. "Fear and distrust prevail in the zone occupied by the rebels," a UN human rights report stated. "Power is held by the Rwandans, who are rejected by a population that feels humiliated."

Many Congolese suspected that the Rwandan government would eventually annex eastern Congo, a suspicion fueled during 1999 when Rwandan and rebel officials introduced a new flag for eastern Congo, appointed a new parliament, stressed special economic and cultural links between Rwandan and eastern Congolese towns, and suggested that historical national boundaries in Africa should be reconsidered.

Faint hopes for an end to the war surfaced when the major combatants signed a peace agreement, known as the Lusaka Accords, in July and August. The accord called for a cease-fire, amnesty, political dialogue to establish a new government, military integration of government and rebel forces, disarmament of militia forces, and deployment of international peacekeeping troops. Congolese religious leaders immediately urged all foreign troops to leave the country.

The UN stationed 90 military liaison officers in all countries involved in the war "to assist the peace process" and lay the groundwork for an eventual peacekeeping force. The UN Security Council authorized 500 military observers to monitor the cease-fire and implementation of the peace agreement. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that an eventual UN peacekeeping force "in order to be effective...will have to be large and expensive."

The Lusaka Accords had little impact on the ground. Rebel forces and their allies continued their military offensives in the north and toward the diamond-rich area of Mbuji-Mayi in south-central Congo during the last half of the year.

"Both parties to the armed conflict have disregarded the rules of international humanitarian law, particularly the rebels, who display unusual cruelty," a UN human rights report stated early in the year. The UN report described a "dictatorship imposed by the rebels in occupied zones."

Insurgent RCD forces reportedly massacred 500 people - including local Red Cross and religious leaders - in late 1998 and early 1999 in South Kivu Province, and allegedly killed more than 300 additional persons there in March. RCD and Rwandan soldiers allegedly burned 40 people to death in their homes in southern Katanga Province in July. Rape, disappearances, and looting occurred regularly in areas controlled by rebels and their Rwandan and Ugandan allies.

Congolese government troops and their allies also committed atrocities. Pro-government planes bombed at least five towns during the year, including Kisangani in the north, and Bukavu and Uvira in the east, causing more than 300 civilian deaths, according to a UN investigation. Pro-government troops looted towns and abused local populations while retreating from insurgent military advances.

"The conflict has been characterized by appalling, widespread, and systematic human rights violations, including mass killings, ethnic cleansing, rape, and the destruction of property," a mid-year report by the UN secretary general stated.

A separate UN report estimated that at least 6,000 people were killed in the first year of war. The estimate, however, did not include displaced people who might have perished after fleeing into the country's immense forests, up to 7,000 who died in local ethnic hostilities, and civilians killed in the final months of 1999.

Uprooted Congolese

1999 was a year of massive population upheaval in Congo-Kinshasa. About a half-million Congolese fled their homes during 1999, including more than 100,000 who fled to neighboring countries and 300,000 to 500,000 who became newly displaced within Congo-Kinshasa.

Newly uprooted families joined hundreds of thousands of other Congolese who remained uprooted from previous years. A cumulative total of 800,000 Congolese were internally displaced and nearly a quarter-million lived as refugees at the end of 1999.

Approximately 360,000 people were internally displaced in eastern Congo at year's end, according to UN estimates. Some 200,000 people were displaced in the north, about 180,000 in southern areas, and 60,000 in central Congo-Kinshasa.

On a provincial level, UN aid workers estimated that about 200,000 persons were internally displaced in South Kivu Province, some 180,000 in Katanga Province, 160,000 in North Kivu Province, about 120,000 in Equateur Province, 80,000 in Oriental Province, 60,000 in Kasai Oriental Province, and 20,000 in Maniema Province.

Despite the wide-ranging upheaval, much of the population displacement was not arbitrary, but instead was targeted at specific groups or individuals at specific locations. Two-thirds of all uprooted Congolese fled because they were deliberately victimized by combatants or had reasonable fears that they would be targeted for reprisals, a UN study concluded. The remainder fled because of the war's arbitrary insecurity and accidental cross-fire, according to the UN report.

Tens of thousands of persons temporarily vacated the northern city of Kisangani when Ugandan and Rwandan troops clashed there in August, causing at least 30 civilian deaths. An estimated 80,000 residents of northern Orientale Province became displaced by ethnic violence reportedly abetted by Ugandan soldiers.

Some 70,000 people in South Kivu Province fled to Tanzania, and larger numbers fled into the forests to escape reprisals by Rwandan and RCD troops controlling their territory. The troops reportedly blocked many people from leaving the country. A UN report accused Rwandan and RCD forces in eastern Congo of deporting some Congolese ethnic Hutu to Rwanda and Burundi.

Most of Congo's massive population movement occurred "invisibly," in isolated areas virtually cut off from the outside world. One particular uprooted population received international attention, however. Congolese government authorities detained 1,000 ethnic Tutsi after predominantly Tutsi forces attacked the country in August 1998. The Tutsi population, which included Rwandans, Burundians, and Congolese, remained in detention during the first half of 1999, primarily in Kinshasa and in the city of Lubumbashi in southern Katanga Province.

The Congolese government regarded some Tutsi detainees as accomplices to the insurgents and others as innocent civilians who required protection from potential reprisals by anti-Tutsi civilians. After extended negotiations, officials allowed about 400 of the detainees to repatriate by air to Rwanda and Burundi. Some 1,500 other detainees departed Congo by plane to other African countries, for eventual resettlement in the United States, Canada, and Belgium.

Some Congolese who did not flee their homes suffered as much or more than those who did. Many families who remained at home were "virtually held hostage by feuding factions," a UN report concluded in November. Such people "probably [are] enduring more suffering than internally or externally displaced populations."

Humanitarian Conditions

The country's continued warfare brought added misery to a population already destitute after decades of misrule and economic isolation. Some 14 million Congolese needed humanitarian assistance, according to UN estimates. Impoverished towns and villages struggled to provide lodging and food to the massive numbers of displaced Congolese.

A UN report in July cited "harrowing accounts of famine and epidemics" in Congo-Kinshasa. "Food security and economic conditions, in particular in urban centers, continue to deteriorate at an alarming rate," the report warned.

A UN Security Council resolution characterized the humanitarian situation as "grave" and stressed "the need to create an environment conducive to the return in safety and dignity of all refugees and displaced persons." Many families who returned home, however, found their property looted.

Displaced families typically lived on their own in forests, in the crowded homes of friends, or in camps with contaminated water and insufficient food, aid workers reported. Malnutrition levels increased to 13 percent in the northern city of Kisangani and to 14 percent in the southern town of Lubumbashi. Some rural areas reported much higher malnutrition rates.

The war increased the number of malnourished children nationwide by 100,000, according to a UN estimate. Farmers were unable to get their crops to market, causing 40 percent food deficits in some urban markets.

Maternal mortality during childbirth more than doubled. The incidence of malaria rose to the highest levels in 70 years, according to a UN report. Many schools in rebel-held territory were closed, and aid agencies reported an "unprecedented increase" in street children.

Congo's humanitarian suffering "continues to be widely ignored by the international community," a UN funding appeal stated in November. "The international response to address the humanitarian needs in [Congo-Kinshasa] has been less than generous and inadequate."

UN relief agencies appealed to international donors for $80 million but received less than one-fourth that amount. The poor response "tarnished" the UN humanitarian system and engendered bitterness among Congolese who felt abandoned by the international community, aid officials reported. Because of poor funding and difficult logistics amid Congo's war, "the impact of these [aid] activities remained largely marginal" and reached only one-sixth of the intended beneficiaries, a UN report concluded. "Humanitarian action...is limited in scope and often ill-timed."

Despite the limitations, UN aid programs provided therapeutic feeding for 12,000 children in eastern Congo and fed 30,000 internally displaced people. Aid workers provided medicines to 30 health clinics and conducted a polio vaccination campaign. Nearly two dozen international aid agencies operated in Congo-Kinshasa, and hundreds of indigenous humanitarian and church organizations offered whatever assistance they could.

War's Affect on UNHCR

Congo's war curtailed the work of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as it attempted to aid and protect some 235,000 refugees from other countries who fled to Congo to escape wars and persecution in their own countries. The refugees were scattered among eight of the country's 11 provinces.

UNHCR's international staff evacuated from all locations except Kinshasa, the capital, in 1998. UNHCR's vehicles and property were looted in some areas. The agency resumed limited operations during 1999, including in rebel-held territory, but a majority of refugees in Congo remained beyond UNHCR's reach.

The UN refugee agency warned its financial donors that, in Congo, "the delivery of humanitarian assistance is extremely challenging, sometimes impossible." Congo remained "an extremely complex and volatile environment," UNHCR explained.

Refugees from Angola

More than 15,000 Angolan refugees fled to Congo-Kinshasa during 1999 because of renewed civil war in Angola. Nearly 50,000 have arrived in Congo during the past two years. The recent arrivals joined an estimated 100,000 Angolan refugees who fled to Congo in previous years, including many who have lived in Congo-Kinshasa for decades and were well-integrated into local communities.

About 50,000 refugees lived at three sites in Katanga Province, near the Congo-Angola border. More than 7,000 lived in three villages in southern Congo's Bandundu Province. About 60,000, including 45,000 long-time refugees, lived in two camps and numerous villages in Bas-Congo Province, at least a day's walk from Kinshasa. An estimated 30,000 resided in Kinshasa.

Many recent arrivals found at least temporary lodging and food from local families who were themselves impoverished and unable to provide sustained assistance. New refugees in Bas-Congo Province took shelter in public buildings. A health survey in early 1999 found that 12 percent of the Angolan refugees at one location suffered severe malnutrition.

UNHCR provided assistance to about 60 percent of the Angolan refugees and attempted to encourage local integration and self-sufficiency among those who had arrived in earlier years. UNHCR implemented a therapeutic feeding program for malnourished children, but poor roads and the refugees' scattered settlement pattern limited the project's success.

Angolan government soldiers supporting the Congolese government, as well as Angolan rebel troops fighting against the Congolese government, visited sites in Congo housing Angolan refugees during 1999, posing protection concerns for the refugee population. Angolan rebel troops reportedly harassed male refugees and sought to recruit them into rebel ranks.

About 20,000 Angolan refugees repatriated from Congo-Kinshasa during 1999. About 6,000 were Angolan government officials and their families who had fled temporarily to Congo.

Refugees from Sudan

Most Sudanese refugees arrived in Congo-Kinshasa during 1990-91 because of civil war in their own country, which continued throughout 1999. They have lived in a remote corner of northeastern Congo-Kinshasa, more than 1,100 miles (about 1,800 km) from the capital, where poor roads and vast distances hampered assistance efforts throughout the 1990s. Many of the refugees farmed and were self-sufficient until Congo's own civil war erupted.

The exact number of Sudanese refugees has long been uncertain and became more confused in 1998. An estimated 60,000 lived in Congo in early 1998, but the majority dispersed from their refugee sites late that year. UNHCR charged that Sudanese rebels entered the refugee sites in late 1998 and forced thousands of refugees to repatriate. Thousands of others reportedly fled to different locations in Congo to escape the Sudanese rebels. Other aid workers alleged that the refugees dispersed to escape insecurity caused by Congo-Kinshasa's war.

About 35,000 Sudanese refugees returned to three sites in northeastern Congo during 1999, where they received limited UNHCR assistance. UNHCR re-deployed international staff to the area in mid-1999 after evacuating them the previous year because of the war. UNHCR resumed efforts to integrate the refugee population permanently and facilitate the refugees' ability to feed themselves by farming the area's fertile soil.

Sudanese rebels forced 30 persons to return to Sudan during 1999; the rebels charged that the individuals were deserters from the rebel army.

Refugees from Congo-Brazzaville

Some 10,000 to 20,000 refugees from Congo-Brazzaville were in Congo-Kinshasa at the beginning of 1999.

About 50,000 additional refugees from Congo-Brazzaville fled temporarily to Congo-Kinshasa during the year to escape civil war and human rights abuses in their own country. The vast majority - some 50,000 - voluntarily repatriated, leaving about 10,000 in Congo-Kinshasa at the end of 1999.

UNHCR established three transit centers to receive the large refugee influx early in the year. Many arrived in poor health after months in the forest. Most of the refugees were residents of the capital of Congo-Brazzaville and were reluctant to live in rural refugee camps near Kinshasa. Despite continued instability in their homeland, most of the refugees chose to repatriate.

UNHCR signed a three-way agreement with the governments of Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville to facilitate the refugees' voluntary return home. Returnees received health care and food packages.

Officials suspected some camp occupants were combatants in Congo-Brazzaville's war and detained them.

At the end of 1999, about 5,000 refugees lived at three designated sites near Kinshasa, and an estimated 5,000 others were scattered in villages and in the capital city.

Refugees from Burundi

An estimated 20,000 Burundian refugees were in Congo-Kinshasa at the end of 1999, but their exact number and condition were impossible to know. Most lived on their own in eastern Congo and sought to remain inconspicuous for their own protection. Virtually all were ethnic Hutu.

UNHCR and other aid agencies had virtually no contact with the vast majority of Burundians, who were believed to live primarily near the town of Uvira, in South Kivu Province. About 600 lived in a camp in the city of Mbuji-Mayi, in central Kasai Province. As the war grew closer to Mbuji-Mayi, UNHCR expressed concern that the refugees were no longer safe and should eventually transfer to a new location.

About 160 Burundian refugees repatriated by air from Mbuji-Mayi to their home country with UNHCR assistance during 1999. An additional 150 refugees who registered to repatriate were unable to do so because of insecurity in Burundi.

Refugees from Uganda

An estimated 5,000 Ugandan refugees were in Congo-Kinshasa at year's end. Some had fled their country in the 1980s, and others arrived in the late 1990s because of an insurgency in southwest Uganda.

Insecurity on both sides of the Congo-Uganda border persuaded the refugees to move back and forth across the border as security conditions constantly changed during 1999. While in Congo, the refugees lived near the northeastern town of Bunia. UNHCR had no access to the refugee population during the year. A local religious organization provided small amounts of aid to the refugees.

Asylum Seekers from Rwanda

The number as well as the refugee status of Rwandans in Congo-Kinshasa remained uncertain in 1999.

According to most estimates, at least 30,000 Rwandans lived in Congo-Kinshasa at year's end, but other estimates ranged as high as 60,000 and even 150,000. The vast majority of Rwandans lived in areas beyond the reach of aid workers, making more exact estimates difficult. About 1,500 lived in the government-controlled southern city of Mbuji-Mayi.

Most Rwandans, virtually all of them ethnic Hutu, fled to Congo-Kinshasa in 1994 with their political and military leaders who had committed genocide in Rwanda that year. The first phase of Congo's civil war during 1996-97 scattered Rwandan refugees throughout the country and left tens of thousands dead. Hundreds of thousands repatriated to Rwanda under controversial circumstances to escape the dangers of Congo's war, particularly the threat posed by Rwandan government troops who killed or harassed many Hutu Rwandans and Congolese found living in eastern Congo.

Some 35,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees repatriated during 1999 from eastern Congo - an area controlled by Rwandan troops and their Congolese allies. UNHCR and aid workers expressed concern that rebel and Rwandan authorities coerced some of the repatriations. Aid workers' interviews with returnees indicated mixed attitudes: some were returning voluntarily, while some were pressured to go home.

UNHCR belatedly agreed to facilitate 10,000 repatriations in the second half of the year after deciding that the returns were largely voluntary.

The refugee status of most Rwandans remained undetermined. UNHCR and government officials were unable to conduct official interviews to determine which individuals had legitimate refugee claims, and which were disqualified from refugee status because of previous participation in the Rwandan genocide or current activity as combatants. USCR therefore lists the Rwandan population as living in refugee-like conditions.

UNHCR acknowledged in November that uncertainty over the identity of the Rwandans made the agency's interaction with them politically "delicate."

USCR Actions

The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) conducted a site visit to the capital of Congo-Kinshasa in January 1999. USCR found wide disagreements among relief officials regarding the gravity of humanitarian needs in the country and the extent of population displacement. The site visit concluded that the war and long-term economic decline had destroyed public health services in most areas.

USCR joined with 26 other humanitarian and human rights organizations in August to urge stronger U.S. support for peace efforts in Congo-Kinshasa. "A viable peace would allow the Congolese people to begin to rebuild their shattered nation. It could bring to an end the cross-border incursions responsible for much of the violence elsewhere in central Africa," USCR and the agencies wrote to top U.S. foreign policy officials. "But complex and expensive peacekeeping arrangements must be financed from outside Africa."

USCR also wrote to the U.S. State Department in May to urge more aggressive U.S. efforts to help evacuate Tutsi detainees from Congo-Kinshasa to other countries, and to resettle them in the United States.

Throughout the year, USCR provided regular analysis to U.S. officials and the media regarding the war in Congo and its impact on Congolese people. USCR stressed that the war threatened to radicalize a large portion of the Congolese population who viewed the conflict as an attack by external forces rather than a genuine civil war.