Crise Kasai
Minee par la guerre et la famine, cette region du centre de la Republique Deemocratique du Congo fait face a? une situation de crise humanitaire dramatique.
C?est un drame silencieux qui se deroule dans cette region enclaveee de la Republique democratique du Congo, au centre du pays. Depuis trois ans, cette province est le theatre d?affrontements meurtriers entre les miliciens Kamuina Nsapu et les Forces armees de la Republique democratique du Congo (FARDC). Un conflit qui a mis la region a feu et a sang et provoque l?exode de plus d?un million de personnes, fuyant les massacres perpetres dans les deux camps.
La region s?est embrasee le 12 aou?t 2016 apres la mort de l?ex-chef coutumier des Kamuina Nsapu, Jean-Pierre Mpandi. En lutte avec le pouvoir central de Kinshasa et le pre?sident Joseph Kabila, ce dernier est tue dans l?assaut de sa maison par les forces de securite du regime. Son elimination, dans une region calme depuis soixante ans mais historiquement composee d?opposants, declenche une insurrection de bandes armees contre l?autorite de l?Etat. Tres vite, la milice Kamuina Nsapu embrigade de force des enfants dans les villages. Armes de machettes, ils ciblent les symboles du gouvernement, tuent et decapitent les agents de l?Etat qu?ils capturent. Face a la revolte, l?armee mene une repression sanglante, accusant la population civile de soutenir le soulevement. Sur place, des temoignages concordants font etat de violences indiscriminees, de destructions massives et de l?usage du viol, utilise comme arme de guerre dans les deux camps.
Cette nouvelle crise enfonce un peu plus le Kasai vers d?importants mouvements de population, un declin de l?agriculture et toujours plus d?enclavement, plongeant la population dans un sentiment d?abandon et de frustration encore plus grand.
Kasai Crisis
Kananga, Democratic Republic of the Congo - For the past three years, the Kasai-Central province has been the scene of deadly clashes between the Kamuina Nsapu and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC).
The conflict has caused the exodus of more than a million people who are displaced within DRC and more than 30,000 that fled to Angola. Almost four million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, including 2.3 million children.
The conflict started on August 12, 2016, after the death of former Kamuina Nsapu traditional leader Jean-Pierre Mpandi in an assault on his house by the government security forces.
His death triggered an insurrection of armed gangs against the state in a region that had been relatively peaceful for 60 years.
Very quickly, the Kamuina Nsapu armed group started recruiting children from the villages in the region. According to a UNICEF report published in May 2018, 60 percent of the armed group's members were children.
The army led bloody repression, accusing the civilians of supporting the uprising.
On the ground, there were reports of indiscriminate violence, mass destruction and the use of rape as a weapon of war by both sides.
This new crisis is pushing the province further into major population movements, a decline in agriculture and ever more isolation, and plunging the civilians into an even greater sense of abandonment and frustration.
