By RFIPalled on 02-27-2019Modified on 27-02-2019 at 18:36

Since December 2015, a coalition of armed groups, led by UN-sanctioned warlord Guidon Shimiray Mwissa, has been conducting an offensive against all Hutu armed groups, both Congolese and foreigners, in North Kivu, causing the displacement. tens of thousands of Hutu civilians. According to Congolese security sources, the violence killed more than 100 people in less than two months. His grip was confirmed during the last polls of December 30. In Masisi, according to the UN, his men took control of several polling stations to force voters to vote for pro-Kabila coalition candidates. Activists filmed them without their knowledge.

The scene takes place in Bukombo, Masisi. In a polling station, we see a youth in plainclothes that everyone calls "ndime ndime", it is the nickname given to the youth of the NDC-Renovated and by extension to his deputies of the APCLS-Renovated Mapenzi. The man who scares everyone stands at the entrance to the voting booth and tells voters how to vote with the machine, without the agents of the Ceni dare to intervene.

" When you get there, Dad, you take the newsletter, the Ndime ndime will tell you how. "In a low voice, the agent of the Ceni explains that since the opening of the polling stations, fighters have arrived with the firm intention to impose their candidates in three of the five offices of this center. A constituent confirms: " For the first, he had Ramazani Shadary. For the deputies, Nyarusumba. For the third, Marie Shematsi. I do not want to plunge this paper into the ballot box. He said, go ahead, put it on. "

In the polling station, a man in military uniform and a policeman is also seen in front of the hidden camera. In a low voice always, the agent of the Ceni confides: "the FARDC are accomplices, instead that they come to maintain the order, they are silent ". The agent says he does not want to risk his life for " trivialities ".

A growing influence

In three years, Guidon Shimiray Mwissa has increased his grip on the North Kivu province, without ever really being the object of operations against it. This former FARDC officer has taken control of the Nduma Defense of Congo by chasing his former boss Sheka, now being prosecuted for crimes against humanity and awaiting trial.

Under the guidance of Guidon, the NDC-Renovated will support or create a galaxy of militias, always aiming to drive out Hutus, both combatants and civilians. According to a UN report released last December, this campaign was accompanied by summary executions, rapes, forced and massive population displacements, illegal tax collection and illegal exploitation of mineral resources. In this report, the UN mentions complicity between Guidon, its allies and FARDC officers, but also notes that investigations are opened by Congolese military justice.

In Masisi territory, at the end of December, dissidents of the FDLR, the Rwandan rebels of the CNRD, were targeted. These attacks again led to the exodus of thousands of Hutu civilians. It is this famous "column" against which the outgoing Minister of Defense had asked the Blue Helmets to intervene in support of the Congolese army, assuring that this displacement of population was the premise of a belligerent action against Rwanda.

But the offensive of Guidon and his allies continues, this time against the Nyatura, Congolese Hutu groups who, too, are far from being children of choir. According to the UN, the Nyatura were responsible for nearly half of the abuses committed in Masisi between 2017 and 2018.

    On the same subject

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    DRC: the NDC-Renovated Leader Guidon, pointed in the attack of Buleusa

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