DRC: in Kisangani, the trauma of the 2000 clashes between Ugandans and Rwandans

According to a UN report, more than 700 civilians were killed in Kisangani between June 5 and 10, 2000 (illustrative image).

CC / Creative Commons / Piet Clement

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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has decided to carry out an expertise to determine the reparations that Uganda will have to pay to the DRC following the clashes between Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers on Congolese territory between 1998 and 2003. Lack of agreement between Kinshasa and Kampala, the ICJ will appoint 4 judges to assess the damages.

In Kisangani more than 700 people were killed in what has been called the Six Day War.

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With our special

correspondent

in Kisangani,

Patient Ligodi

From June 5 to 10, 2000, the Rwandan and Ugandan armies clash in this city of approximately one million inhabitants.

Pierre Kabaka, head of the Justice and Liberation Association, was present and remembers the bombings.

“ 

There was no authority in the city.

Ugandans and Rwandans did not clash directly.

They were throwing shells at each other.

The Ugandans were on the other side of the Tshopo River and the Rwandans were in Lubunga.

All the shells they threw fell in the town of Kisangani.

 "

It was 20 years ago.

But the scars of this violence are still very present today, explains human rights activist Dismas Kitenge.

“ 

It represents people who are now living with disabilities.

It also represents this psychological trauma, people who have lost almost all their families and who are left alone and their lives have been shattered

 ”.

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War in the DRC: the ICJ orders an expert report to assess Uganda's reparations

The clashes also had an impact on the city itself.

Its development has stopped, underlines political scientist Alphonse Maindo.

“ 

Kisangani was initially conceived as a crossroads city, a warehouse city.

And Kisangani found himself in the middle of nowhere, isolated from everything and everything collapsed.

 "

According to a UN report, more than 700 people, civilians, were killed in Kisangani between June 5 and 10, 2000. And more than 400 homes were destroyed in the clashes.

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