Civilian authorities will be replaced by soldiers and police in two provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the state of siege comes into force on Thursday.

"I have decided to proclaim a state of siege in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu," President Tshisekedi recalled on Monday (May 3) in an address on Congolese public television RTNC, claiming to have heard "the cry of distress of our population and feel the pains experienced by our mothers, our sisters, our daughters in these provinces ravaged by barbarism ". This state of siege was announced Friday evening.

Succeeding the Head of State, Tharsice Kasongo Mwema, his spokesperson said that the state of siege was declared "for a period of thirty days from Thursday, May 6, 2021".

"To deal with the situation during the state of siege, the civilian authorities, the provincial governments of Ituri and North Kivu and the entities of these provinces will be replaced by officers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the national police, ”he added.

"Until peace is restored" in these two provinces in the northeast and east of the DRC, "the action of the civil courts will be replaced by that of the military courts," he said.

Instability

Rich in minerals, on the border of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, the provinces of North and South Kivu (east) fell into violence during the two Congo wars (1996-97, 1998-2003) , without regaining any real stability since.

Further north, the province of Ituri again fell into violence at the end of 2017 after a lull of around fifteen years.

Dozens of armed groups of varying sizes are still active in eastern DRC - 122, according to a group of experts from the Kivu Security Barometer (KST).

Members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group, at the origin of the Ugandan Muslim rebels, are by far the deadliest: they have been accused of the massacre of more than 1,000 civilians since November 2019 in the territory of Beni.

With AFP

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