DRC: ICC prosecutor in Kinshasa to investigate violence in North Kivu

Can strengthening justice in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) help end the conflict ? That is what Karim Khan wants to believe. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrived Monday evening in Kinshasa, the capital, to discuss the crimes committed in North Kivu. In this region neighbouring Rwanda, the M23, supported by Rwandan forces, continues its advance which began with the capture of the city of Goma on 25 January.

"How many generations of your children will be sacrificed, targeted? Enough is enough," the prosecutor told RFI after arriving in the Congolese capital. According to the French channel, Karim Khan is due to meet with Head of State Félix Tshisekedi and members of the government, and Bintou Keita, special representative of the UN Secretary-General in the DRC.

Also read : “I’m so afraid of them”: in the DRC, M23 rebels seize Bukavu

The conflict in North Kivu, which has lasted for over thirty years, has been experiencing a resurgence since the end of January with the resumption of fighting by the M23 rebels. After Goma, they continued their route towards the South and took Bukavu, another key city in the region, thereby taking control of Lake Kivu. Abuses, on the part of both the rebels and the regular Congolese army, have been reported on the fringes of the fighting. According to RFI, some residents of Bukavu have mentioned acts of vandalism and violence by certain FARDC (Congolese forces) and Wazalendo fighters, self-defense militias. In response to these reports, the ICC Prosecutor launched an appeal for witnesses in early February. Last October, Karim Khan had also opened an investigation in North Kivu at the request of the Congolese authorities.

This aims to document crimes committed in the East since 2021. The ICC also wants to support the creation of a special court in the DRC. “Too many people have interfered in the affairs of this country, and this for years,” Karim Khan said, while Kigali actively supports the rebels who now control a large part of the region. “We are reaching out to the government of the DRC. We want to bring in new partners to try to establish a solid, comprehensive, sustainable and holistic approach to justice that will eradicate the poison of crime from Congolese soil and that will allow your children to have a better future.”

Also read : DRC: Can the M23 go “as far as Kinshasa”, as the rebels claim?

Since January, the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed the lives of more than 7,000 people, including a significant number of civilians, Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka said in Geneva on Monday. "We have not yet been able to identify all of these people, now it is very easy to say that these dead are only soldiers," she said during a press briefing on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council. "The security and humanitarian situation in eastern DRC has reached alarming levels," she insisted earlier before the Human Rights Council. The rapid advance of the M23 and Rwandan forces has caused thousands of people to flee, and the conflict has worsened an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.