Congo Violence Continues, Despite Peace Treaty

Alison Raphael, OneWorld US Thu Jul 31, 10:11 AM ET

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 30 (OneWorld) - The peace agreements signed in January are unraveling fast in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), leaving 200 dead and some 150,000 Congolese with no alternative but flight so far this year, according to newly formed Congo Advocacy Coalition (CAC).

"The peace agreement has failed to silence the guns, and the people of eastern Congo continue to suffer and to run for their lives," said Juliette Prodhan, head of Oxfam Great Britain, a member of CAC.

"The parties to the agreement must urgently redouble their efforts to act on the commitments they made to protect civilians," she continued.

The province of North Kivu, in the eastern Congo, borders Rwanda and is plagued by armed militia groups, one of which is composed of Hutus who fled Rwanda during the 1984 genocide in that country.

Some 850,000 people have abandoned their homes in North Kivu due to violence. Many live in camps established by the UN for internally displaced people (IDPs), others live with relatives.

One mother at an IDP camp told IRIN News: "We fled when fighting intensified in Masisi eight months ago and I am now forced to cramp my family of five children, two of them aged 18 and 15, into a tiny tent in this camp."

"This year has seen the worst humanitarian situation in the province; about half a million people became displaced within a short period of time," said Patrick Lavand'Homme, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Goma, capital of North Kivu province.

In addition to displacement, civilian women are highly vulnerable to rape, while both boy and girl children are frequently abducted by armed groups to serve as child soldiers.

More than 2,200 rapes were reported in North Kivu in June, 2008 alone, according to CAC.

The January peace agreement involved a ceasefire between the DRC government and 22 armed groups active there, and a commitment to respect international humanitarian and human rights laws and principles, including not targeting or involving civilians in conflict.

Anneke Van Woudenberg of Human Rights Watch and the Congo Advocacy Coalition (CAC), formed this month by local and international aid groups to track progress toward peace and call attention to emerging problems, said that thus far, the agreements have "not yet made life better for the citizens of eastern Congo."

This week CAC called on the parties to the peace agreement -- as well as international actors that helped to broker it, including the United States, European Union, African Union and United Nations -- to work harder on making peace a reality. 

The coalition urged groups in the Congo to respect the pledges made in January, and to hold those who continue abuses against civilians to account. The group also wants the UN to appoint a special advisor on human rights for eastern Congo.

International actors, says CAC, should back up their mediation efforts with funding for efforts to help consolidate the peace, such as programs to help fighters find sustainable alternatives to violence, promote reconciliation, and address some of the underlying problems in the DRC, such as land tenure.