U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2001 - Congo-Kinshasa

Congo-Kinshasa (also known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire) was the source for more than 2.1 million uprooted people at the end of 2000, including some 350,000 refugees and asylum seekers, and an estimated 1.8 million internally displaced persons. Approximately 1 million Congolese newly fled their homes during the year.

There were significant numbers of refugees from Congo-Kinshasa in at least ten countries: about 110,000 in Tanzania, nearly 100,000 in Congo-Brazzaville, some 60,000 in Zambia, 28,000 in Rwanda, 15,000 in Central African Republic, 12,000 in Angola, 10,000 in Uganda, 5,000 in Burundi, 2,000 in Cameroon, and 2,000 in Malawi. About 8,000 citizens of Congo-Kinshasa applied for asylum in Europe during the year.

About 275,000 refugees from six neighboring countries were in Congo-Kinshasa at year's end: 170,000 from Angola, 70,000 from Sudan, 20,000 from Burundi, 10,000 from Uganda, 5,000 from Congo-Brazzaville, and 1,000 from Rwanda.

An estimated 30,000 or more Rwandans were in Congo-Kinshasa living in refugee-like circumstances. Their status remained undetermined, pending eventual assessment of their asylum claims.

Pre-2000 Events

Congo-Kinshasa, geographically the second-largest country in Africa, endured three distinct political and military phases during 1996-99.

During the first phase, a rebel army backed by troops from neighboring Rwanda and Uganda began a sudden military offensive in late 1996 that ousted President Mobutu Sese Seko from power in 1997, after 31 years of repressive and corrupt rule. In the second political phase, which lasted two years, the nominal rebel leader, Laurent Kabila, assumed the presidency and resisted calls that he share power with other political opponents of the deposed Mobutu.

In the third phase, beginning in mid-1998, Kabila's former Rwandan and Ugandan allies joined with opponents of Kabila in eastern Congo to launch a second round of warfare in the country. The war rapidly degenerated into what one report called "a continent-wide free-for-all." Troops from eight neighboring countries and at least seven insurgent groups entered the rapidly escalating conflict.

The war became even more complex in 1999 when the main rebel army, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), split into two factions, one backed by Uganda, and the other supported by Rwanda. Rwandan and Ugandan troops – erstwhile allies – clashed against each other in the northern city of Kisangani, causing hundreds of military and civilian deaths. Several new rebel groups materialized, most notably the Congolese Liberation Movement, which captured large amounts of territory in the country's north.

The war and the flood of guns it brought into the country inflamed tensions in eastern Congo between ethnic Hema and ethnic Lendu populations, triggering massacres and other killings that left 7,000 dead.

All sides signed a peace agreement in mid-1999, known as the Lusaka Accord, that called for a cease-fire, amnesty, integration of armed factions into the national military, disarmament of militia, and deployment of UN peacekeeping troops. The peace accord did not dampen the violence, however. By the end of 1999, anti-government forces held 60 percent of the country, an estimated quarter-million Congolese were refugees, and approximately 800,000 people were internally displaced.

"The conflict has been characterized by appalling, widespread, and systematic human rights violations, including mass killings, ethnic cleansing, rape, and the destruction of property," a 1999 report by the UN secretary general declared.

Warfare and Politics in 2000

The war continued on at least seven fronts during the year, in what a UN report described as a "sporadic stalemate." Regular armies as well as militia continued to carve out their own areas of control. The Congolese government continued to hold less than half the country.

The heaviest military engagements occurred in northern Congo's Equateur Province and southeastern Congo's Katanga Province. Congolese government troops launched offensives in both provinces, as did anti-government forces backed by Ugandan and Rwandan armies.

Intense fighting also erupted in the northern city of Kisangani in June, where Ugandan and Rwandan troops battled each other for the second straight year. Heavy artillery shelling during the Kisangani violence killed 760 civilians, wounded 1,700 persons, and damaged or destroyed 4,000 homes, a UN investigation found.

Eastern Congo's North Kivu and South Kivu provinces – both controlled in part by RCD rebels and the Rwandan military – experienced widespread human rights abuses by all sides, as numerous local militia and Rwandan ethnic Hutu combatants known as Interahamwe fought against the area's occupying force. Ethnic violence persisted between Hema and Lendu populations in northeastern Orientale Province, a conflict fueled by Ugandan troops who had nominal control of the area. Rwandan troops sustained a seventh military front, in central Congo's Kasai Province.

The war included use of tanks, heavy artillery, aerial bombardments of towns, targeted executions, massacres, and rapes, according to numerous reports.

"A hallmark of the crisis has been a blatant disregard for international human rights, and the civilian populations being offered no protection and intentionally targeted by all sides through widespread atrocities," the UN secretary general reported in December. In most cases, however, the international community lacked first-hand information about the scale of abuses.

Combatants' eagerness to exploit Congo's rich natural resources, including diamonds, gold, precious metals, and coffee plantations, helped sustain the war. Fighting erupted in Kisangani, for example, because "Ugandan and Rwandan forces and their affiliated rebel groups vied for control of the lucrative diamond industry centered in the city," a UN report explained.

International efforts to mediate an end to the violence in accordance with the 1999 Lusaka Peace Agreement made only limited progress. The UN Security Council voted to expand the number of UN military observers in Congo from 90 to 500, and approved sending 5,000 peacekeeping troops when conditions permit their deployment. Rwanda and Uganda "have violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Congo and should "withdraw all their forces ... without delay," the UN Security Council stated in June.

By year's end, military offensives continued in Katanga and Equateur Province, and international observers warned of permanent damage to Congolese society.

"Recent months have seen ... rising inter-ethnic rivalries, and increasing resentment among Congolese ethnic groups vis-a-vis the [ethnic] Tutsi in general. These developments have put the civilian population in greater danger than previously reported," said an analysis by the UN secretary general. "There has also been a marked increase in the number of warlords in remote areas who have engaged in a pattern of systematically destroying the institutions of civil society, and manipulating ... ethnic groups against each other."

Uprooted Congolese

Wide-ranging war and human rights abuses forced up to 1 million Congolese to flee their homes during the course of 2000, bringing the total estimated number of uprooted persons to 2.1 million after two years of war. Some 1.8 million Congolese were displaced within their own country, and 350,000 were refugees outside the country. Congo has a total population of about 50 million.

About 130,000 new Congolese refugees fled the country during 2000. Some 80,000 fled westward to Congo-Brazzaville; 25,000 new refugees sought safety southward into Zambia; and 10,000 went northward to Central African Republic. Nearly 10,000 fled to Burundi, Uganda, and Malawi during the year. Some 8,000 Congolese applied for asylum in Europe. Thousands more potential refugees reportedly fled toward border areas but did not cross into neighboring countries.

International relief agencies were unable to reach many of the country's dangerous, remote areas and could only estimate the number of internally displaced Congolese. A mid-year UN assessment speculated that nearly 300,000 persons were displaced in North Kivu Province, 220,000 in South Kivu Province, 230,000 in Orientale Province, and 110,000 in Maniema Province. All four provinces are in eastern Congo, where many local residents opposed Rwandan and RCD rebel troops that occupied that region of the country.

The same UN assessment estimated that a quarter-million people were displaced in both Katanga Province in southeast Congo and in Equateur Province in the northwest. More than 180,000 persons were uprooted in East Kasai and West Kasai provinces.

Most of the country's massive population upheaval occurred "invisibly" in isolated areas virtually cut off from the outside world. Many families fled into forests or to nearby villages to live with relatives or friends who often had no food or shelter to spare. Relatively few displaced persons occupied clearly marked camps, which offered only limited security and unreliable humanitarian assistance in the few locations that such camps existed.

Several displacement camps suffered attacks during the year, including an attack in North Kivu Province that killed 50 camp occupants. Displacement camps housed about 18,000 persons in Kinshasa, 20,000 in Katanga Province, and 18,000 in Kisangani.

As the war raged on, humanitarian workers reported that emergency population movements were exhibiting worrying new patterns. Many families were forced to flee longer distances to find safety, and more displaced people expected to remain uprooted for a longer duration than in previous years, according to relief agencies. At least two-thirds of all residents in eastern Congo's Maniema Province had fled home at least once during the two-year war, according to a UN assessment.

Humanitarian Conditions

The vast isolation of Congo-Kinshasa largely obscured the suffering of its people from the outside world. A country crippled by 30 years of misrule reached new depths of misery in its second year of war.

A mortality study by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in mid-2000 estimated that less than two years of war had directly caused 200,000 civilian deaths by violence and an additional 1.5 million deaths through war-induced malnutrition, disease, and massive population displacement. The study found particularly high death rates among displaced persons and children.

"The death toll from this war has consistently been woefully underestimated," IRC stated. "The ... death toll ... shows no sign of declining." Although some international humanitarian workers and diplomats questioned the accuracy of the study's findings, virtually all observers agreed that the study pointed to a major humanitarian crisis.

Up to 20 million Congolese were directly affected by the war. Some 16 million people faced food shortages because farmers could not harvest their fields or get their crops to market, UN officials reported. Large towns in eastern Congo registered food deficits of 40 percent or more.

"The humanitarian crisis is growing throughout the country," UN humanitarian officials warned. "Agriculture, which accounts for half of [the economy] and fourth-fifths of employment, is grievously damaged, and hunger looms in previously rich food-producing areas. Parts of the country are so remote that nobody yet knows the full damage."

Death rates among children under age five increased by more than one-third in the first half of the year in eastern Congo, according to one study. In some areas, three-quarters of all children died before age two. Maternal mortality during or after pregnancies increased by 20 percent in the east, a health survey concluded. The country's already inadequate health system reached only half as many people in 2000 as a year earlier.

"Health care has nearly completely collapsed. In the vast interior of the country, medicines can hardly be found, let alone paid for," an assessment report by European government officials found.

Health workers reported that sleeping sickness – a disease believed to have been eradicated in 1995 – had returned and was affecting 70 percent of the residents in some communities.

"The war, poor sanitary conditions among displaced populations and residents, and malnutrition have created a fertile ground for the outbreak and spread of numerous illnesses and infectious diseases," the UN secretary general acknowledged in a December report.

Humanitarian relief programs struggled to reach needy populations. Fewer than a half-million Congolese received international assistance inside their country during the year, compared to a goal of 4.5 million beneficiaries in relief plans drawn up by UN officials. Humanitarian workers operated in constant danger; some combatants hijacked relief vehicles to transport weapons. Several relief agencies suspended their programs in eastern Congo because of insecurity.

Congolese government authorities placed administrative restrictions on humanitarian programs – particularly in Equateur Province, where aid agencies sought to conduct assessments of humanitarian needs in the aftermath of large-scale military battles. Government restrictions loosened in many areas later in the year.

Aid programs also faced funding constraints. UN relief agencies received less than one-third of the funding they requested. Many private international relief agencies reportedly encountered problems attracting qualified staff to work in Congo-Kinshasa because of the hardships there. Indigenous charitable organizations managed to function in many areas, albeit with minimal resources.

Congolese society ended the year "critically ill," as one UN report stated. Unemployment was as high as 80 percent nationwide. "Civil servants have not been paid for years and, should they be paid, they would find that inflation has eaten into their salaries so severely as to make them almost worthless," a report by the UN secretary general observed.

The UN's office for coordination of emergency relief warned that "the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, and it is feared that the worst is yet to come."

War's Effect on Refugee Protection

Congo-Kinshasa borders nine countries and has long received refugees from its troubled neighbors. Approximately 275,000 refugees from neighboring countries lived in Congo-Kinshasa at the end of 2000, scattered among eight of the country's 11 provinces.

Congo's own wide-ranging war exposed the refugees to dangers and prevented the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from providing normal protection to them. UNHCR had partial access to about one-third of the refugee population, and virtually no access to the others.

The war in Congo-Kinshasa "created an insecure environment in which refugees rarely find protection, let alone the chance of local integration," UNHCR reported late in the year. "Access to areas hosting refugees continues to be difficult and dangerous."

Some Congolese viewed with suspicion tens of thousands of refugees who originated from countries embroiled in the Congo-Kinshasa war, such as Rwandans, Burundians, and Angolans. "UNHCR is deeply concerned that, if hostilities reach the immediate vicinity of refugee camps, it would be impossible to provide effective security for the refugees," the agency reported. "Basic human rights continue to be violated by all sides with impunity, causing immense suffering to refugees and the local population."

In addition to security constraints, aid workers faced immense logistical challenges as well as administrative restrictions imposed by the Congolese government. Distances to reach refugee populations were vast – many refugees lived more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from the capital – and roads were poor or nonexistent in most areas. UNHCR complained that "government authorization is needed to travel anywhere in the country, and access to certain areas is forbidden."

Because humanitarian workers had unreliable access at best to refugee populations, relief organizations placed a priority on programs that boosted refugees' ability to support themselves without assistance.

Refugees from Angola

New Angolan refugees continued to flee into Congo-Kinshasa during 2000 because of civil war in their own country. Nearly 80,000 have entered Congo during the past three years, including some 30,000 new arrivals during 2000. Approximately 170,000 Angolan refugees lived in Congo-Kinshasa at year's end, including nearly 100,000 who had fled there many years earlier.

About 50,000 refugees lived in southern Congo's Katanga Province, at three sites in or near Kisenge town close to the Congo-Angola border. The three sites housing refugees were Kisenge, Divuma, and Tshimbumbulu.

Nearly 25,000 Angolan refugees lived in southwestern Congo's Bandundu Province, in villages near Kahemba town. About half of the refugees lived in three villages – Kulingji, Bindu, and Tshifwameso – which each sheltered about 4,000 refugees.

An estimated 65,000 refugees lived in two camps and numerous villages in western Congo's Bas-Congo Province. The two camps, Kilueka and Nkondo, each housed about 10,000 refugees. More than 30,000 Angolan refugees lived in the capital, Kinshasa.

Poor roads and security concerns caused by Congo's civil war limited international aid workers' access to most Angolan refugees. Cross-border incursions into Katanga province by Angolan rebels posed yet another threat. UNHCR often relied on armed escorts from Congolese government soldiers while traveling in rural areas.

About 105,000 Angolans received partial assistance at different times during the year. In Bandundu Province, UNHCR helped transport needy refugees to safer locations farther from the border. The World Food Program provided limited amounts of food aid, but gaps in food deliveries triggered malnutrition rates as high as 25 percent at some refugee locations. Food shortages contributed to increased prostitution and divorces among refugees struggling to survive, UNHCR reported.

Humanitarian workers curbed malnutrition rates by upgrading eight feeding centers in Bandundu and Katanga provinces, and provided special assistance to pregnant women. UNHCR distributed seeds and farming tools to 15,000 Angolan refugees, repaired roads and bridges in Katanga Province, and funded construction of more than 80 new latrines at refugee sites in Bandundu Province.

Tensions between refugees and local residents were particularly high in Bandundu Province, an area of strategic military importance because of its proximity to the capital. Many Congolese suspected that the province's refugees supported Angolan rebels. Government authorities restricted the refugees' freedom of movement in the area. UNHCR reported that Angolan refugees in Bandundu Province were highly politicized and internally divided during elections of refugee leaders during the year.

About 6,000 Angolan refugees repatriated from Congo-Kinshasa during 2000.

Refugees from Sudan

An estimated 70,000 Sudanese refugees lived in the northeast corner of Congo-Kinshasa, more than 1,100 miles (about 1,800 km) from the capital. Most fled to Congo during 1990-91 because of Sudan's civil war, which continued during 2000.

The exact number of Sudanese refugees has long been uncertain because of their remote location, poor roads, and security concerns that impeded humanitarian assistance. About 35,000 lived at a site, Dungu, where UNHCR rehabilitated a hospital in early 2000 and maintained local roads. An equal number of Sudanese refugees were believed to live at scattered sites near Dungu, where they supported themselves by farming the area's fertile fields.

Armed Sudanese rebels regularly patrolled the Dungu site and often were the de facto authority in the absence of Congolese government officials, according to UNHCR. The presence of Sudanese rebel combatants posed protection problems for some refugees; tens of thousands temporarily fled when rebels entered the Dungu site in 1998.

The refugee population suffered a "high incidence of measles" in the first half of 2000, UNHCR reported. The limited assistance program at Dungu supported refugee women's associations in income-generating projects such as sewing, weaving, making bricks and baskets, and milling flour.

Refugees from Burundi

An estimated 20,000 Burundian refugees were in Congo-Kinshasa at the end of 2000, but their exact number and condition were impossible to know. Most lived on their own in eastern Congo and sought to remain inconspicuous for their own protection. Virtually all were ethnic Hutu.

UNHCR and other aid agencies had virtually no contact with the vast majority of Burundians, who primarily lived near the town of Uvira, in South Kivu Province. About 700 received food and educational assistance in towns such as Mbuji-Mayi and Tshilonda in Kasai Province, Goma in North Kivu Province, and Bukavu in South Kivu Province.

Refugees from Congo-Brazzaville

Tens of thousands of refugees fled from Congo-Brazzaville to Congo-Kinshasa during the 1990s to escape civil war and human rights abuses in their own country. The majority returned home prior to 2000. An estimated 10,000 repatriated during 2000, leaving 5,000 Congo-Brazzaville refugees in Congo-Kinshasa at year's end.

UNHCR closed two refugee sites during the year. Only Kimaza camp remained open, with 2,000 residents. Some 3,000 other refugees lived scattered in nearby villages.

Camp occupants received food aid, health care, and seeds and farming tools. UNHCR funded construction of 50 houses at Kimaza camp, expanded the camp's drinking water system, and constructed 160 new latrines. Nearly 500 children at Kimaza camp attended local schools. UNHCR also supported a refugee school for 600 students.

Refugees who were political opponents of the government in Congo-Brazzaville reportedly felt threatened by agents of that government who had access to refugee sites in Congo-Kinshasa.

Refugees from Uganda

About 10,000 Ugandan refugees were in Congo-Kinshasa at year's end. Some fled their country in the 1980s. Others repeatedly fled back and forth across Uganda's border with Congo-Kinshasa trying to avoid armed Ugandan guerrillas who operated on both sides of the border.

Humanitarian aid workers had limited access to only 1,000 Ugandan refugees during the year. The others lived on their own.

Asylum Seekers from Rwanda

The number and status of Rwandan refugees in Congo-Kinshasa remained uncertain in 2000.

More than 1 million Rwandans, virtually all of them ethnic Hutu, fled to Congo-Kinshasa in 1994 with their political and military leaders who had committed genocide in Rwanda that year. The overwhelming majority returned to Rwanda under controversial circumstances during 1996-97 to escape the dangers of Congo's war. Tens of thousands more repatriated during 1998-99.

About 22,000 Rwandans repatriated during 2000. Some international aid workers questioned the voluntary nature of some of the repatriations and encouraged UNHCR to improve its monitoring of the repatriation program. UNHCR facilitated Rwandans' return home by providing transportation to the border from collection points in eastern Congo.

By year's end, an estimated 30,000 or more Rwandan asylum seekers remained in Congo-Kinshasa. About 1,000 received relief assistance in four urban areas. Some 300 Rwandan children attended schools in the city of Mbuji-Mayi. The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) classifies the assisted Rwandans as refugees.

The overwhelming majority of Rwandans, however, lived in areas beyond the reach of aid workers, and their refugee status remained uncertain. UNHCR and Congolese government officials were unable to conduct official interviews to determine which individuals had legitimate refugee claims, and which were disqualified from refugee status because of previous participation in the Rwandan genocide or current activity as combatants in Congo-Kinshasa's war.

USCR therefore lists most Rwandans in the country as people of undetermined status living in "refugee-like" conditions. UNHCR acknowledged in 1999 that uncertainty over many Rwandans' background made the agency's interaction with them politically "delicate."