The Bloodiest War

A fragile ceasefire has put a stop to the fighting that has devastated the eastern Congolese province of North Kivu since August. But ceasefires have a poor track record in this troubled hotspot. Spasms of violence in the region's decade-long civil war have left over 5 million people dead, making eastern Congo the deadliest battleground in the world today. A quarter of a million have been displaced in this year's battles alone. To make matters worse, there are now reports emerging that tens of thousands of the displaced have begun to flee the camps set up for them by the United Nations and other aid groups, driven away by soldiers' shooting and looting sprees. "These are people who have really suffered over the last eight weeks or so, and this is just the tip of the iceberg," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, the senior Congo researcher for Human Rights Watch, who is currently working on the ground in Goma. "There are some promising efforts on the diplomatic front right now, in that we're seeing much more senior-level efforts. But diplomacy takes time to work. That's why additional troops are needed, but even they'll take two months to get here. The real question is what to do in the meantime."

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For Van Woudenberg's team, the answer right now is to collect as many eyewitness accounts as they can of the pervasive abuse of civilians by various armed groups. Although the war has been fought by a dizzying assortment of different armies and rebels, all have exacted a bloody toll on the region's civilian population. The latest escalation reflects a power struggle between a Tutsi-led rebel group, the CNDP, led by the ambitious Laurent Nkunda, and the undisciplined and indiscriminately violent government troops of President Joseph Kabila. For both sides, the ghosts of the 1994 Rwandan genocide loom large; Nkunda's forces are supported by the present Rwandan government, while Kabila's army is linked to Rwandan Hutu rebels who perpetrated the genocide. Fueled by ethnic power struggles, funded by the sale of the Congo's vast mineral deposits, and constrained only by an insufficient U.N. peacekeeping force of 17,000, the armies and their local militia sponsors have made rape, looting and the forced recruitment of child soldiers key tactics in their fight for power. To document those abuses, Human Rights Watch has deployed a small team of field staffers to conduct fact-finding visits to camps, hospitals, and villages throughout North Kivu. What follows is a small sampling of the testimonials the group's team has gathered since the fighting intensified in August.

Editor's Note: The following stories contain graphic descriptions of disturbing abuses. To protect those who spoke with field workers about their experiences, all names have been changed.

Caught in the Crossfire: Pierre's Story
Some 250 civilians have been killed in North Kivu since late August, many of them caught in the crossfire or killed by stray bullets and shrapnel as they attempted to run from combat. Pierre has lived in the displaced persons camp in Kibumba since October 2007. He was in the camp when the Congolese army and CNDP rebels began fighting nearby.

"It all happened very quickly. We saw people fleeing and running towards us, and at the same time, we heard lots of gunshots. The Congolese army soldiers were retreating, with the CNDP advancing behind them. Then the bombs from Rwanda fell around us. I saw the body of woman in the camp who had been decapitated by a bomb. I also saw a 17-year-old boy and a 35-year-old man, the father of six kids, killed by the bombs. Another 65-year-old man was killed by a bullet when the CNDP soldiers arrived in the camp. I was focused on fleeing and didn't have time to check all the bodies. Those who weren't killed were blocked by the CNDP. We don't know if they're still alive today, but the news from there isn't good. We've heard that many of the women were raped and that the young men and boys like me were recruited by force for military service."

War on Women: Marie's and Berthe's Stories
As the rebels moved south towards the provincial capital of Goma, the poorly trained and meagerly resourced government soldiers panicked and fled, creating chaos in their wake. At the end of October, they rampaged through areas in and around Goma, killing at least 20 civilians, including five children. Twenty-year-old Marie and her 57-year-old grandmother Berthe were both raped on Oct. 31 by men in Congolese army uniforms. They went to seek medical care the next day, but the health center was out of medicine.

"The soldiers told me to carry bananas for them into the hills. When we got to the hill, one of the soldiers pushed me to the ground. He put the blunt side of his machete on my neck and the handle of his rifle on my chest. Then he raped me. When he was finished, he called the other soldier and he raped me too. Then they told me I could go. As I fled, they shot their rifles into the banana plantation. I fell to the ground, pretending I was dead. They then left and I ran back to my family." --Marie

"The Tutsi soldier came inside and told me he was going to have sex with me. I asked how he could sleep with someone my age. To save myself, I told him I had AIDS and I begged him to let me go. But he refused. Later that night, six other women I know were raped. We don't know who was responsible. Since I was raped, my husband has rejected me and I've been weak and traumatized. But what worries us most is hunger and sickness. I don't know how much longer we'll last." --Berthe