Twenty-five years since the six-day war in Kisangani in Democratic Republic of Congo in which hundreds of civilians were killed and thousands more injured, victims are still waiting for truth, justice and, for the most part, reparations, Amnesty International said in a new briefing today.
The briefing Is anyone moved by Congo’s pain? 25 years without justice for the six-day war in Kisangani, documents how there has not been a single criminal investigation or trial since the bloody conflict between Rwandan and Ugandan forces. During the fighting in the north-eastern city, which started on 5 June 2000, both armies engaged in intense and indiscriminate shelling of heavily populated civilian areas, intentionally killed civilians, raped women and pillaged houses.
With the DRC courts’ failure to pursue justice and the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) lack of jurisdiction over crimes committed in DRC before 2002, those suspected of criminal responsibility for these crimes have never been prosecuted and punished.
“It is utterly unacceptable that for 25 years, not a single person has been held to account for crimes perpetrated in Kisangani, not one,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa. “This lack of criminal accountability for past crimes has led to a cycle of violence in the DRC, with similar actors, similar weapons and similar suffering. Justice cannot wait another 25 years. It is the responsibility of Congolese judicial authorities to investigate and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecute those suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes committed on DRC territory.”
In 2022, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Uganda to pay reparations, following a case brought by the DRC against Uganda and Rwanda. The ICJ did not have jurisdiction over Rwanda. In 2024, some victims finally started to receive compensation, but the process by been wrought by complaints of mismanagement and embezzlement.
Amnesty International interviewed over 50 people, mostly survivors, as well as civil society organizations and justice sector officials.
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Photo credit: © Amnesty International
