Mapping Report > Section I. Most serious violations > CHAPTER II. First Congo War > C. Attacks against other civilian populations > North Kivu > Bwito chiefdom

After the Katale and Kahindo refugee camps were dismantled, many Rwandan Hutu refugees roamed the Bwito chiefdom³⁴³ until March 1997. They frequently mixed with the local population, which comprised mainly Hutu Banyarwanda. In this context, the Mapping Team documented the following alleged incidents:

• At the end of October 1996, a few weeks after the attack on the Katale refugee camp, AFDL/APR (Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo / Rwandan Patriotic Army) units killed at least 88 civilians, mostly Hutu Banyarwanda, in the village of Rusovu in the Tongo groupement. After rounding up the residents, the soldiers shut them away in around 15 houses, then killed them with blows of hoes and hammers to the head. They then set fire to the houses.³⁴⁴

• In November or December 1996, AFDL/APR soldiers killed at least 200 civilians, most of them Hutu Banyarwanda, in the Bambu groupement, notably in the villages of Musanza, Marangara, Kanyangili, Kagando and Kishishe. In Kagando, the soldiers asked the villagers to assemble so they could receive food and salt. They then locked them in small groups in houses which they torched.³⁴⁵

• Also in November or December 1996, elements of the AFDL/APR killed 85 Hutu Banyarwanda civilians in the village of Duane in the Tongo groupement. Having been arrested during a combing operation, the victims were bound and locked in a house, which the soldiers then torched. The victims were burned alive and their bodies buried in small groups of four or five in mass graves.³⁴⁶

• On 31 December 1996, elements of the AFDL/APR killed around 300 civilians, most of them Hutu Banyarwanda, including women and children, in the village of Bukombo in the Rutshuru territory. On their arrival, the soldiers asked the residents to gather in order to attend a meeting. They then surrounded them and opened fire on the crowd. Before leaving the village, the soldiers looted medicine supplies and destroyed the hospital.³⁴⁷

• On 11 March 1997, elements of the AFDL/APR killed dozens of civilians, most of them Hutu Banyarwanda, including women and children, in the village of Mushababwa in the Bambu groupement. Upon their arrival, the soldiers asked the people to gather together in order to attend a meeting. They then surrounded the civilians and opened fire indiscriminately.³⁴⁸

• On 13 March 1997, elements of the AFDL/APR killed several hundred people, most of them Hutu Banyarwanda, in the village of Kazuba in the Bukombo locality. Upon their arrival in the village, the soldiers asked the pastor of the Adventist church to gather the people together to attend a meeting. The civilians who went to the church were shot dead. Other civilians were burned alive when their houses were set on fire. The soldiers indiscriminately killed men, women and children.³⁴⁹

• Between 12 April and 19 April 1997, elements of the AFDL/APR killed over one hundred civilians, most of them Hutu Banyarwanda, in the village of Kabizo. The soldiers had asked the people to gather in order to attend a meeting. Most of the victims were clubbed to death. The bodies were piled into village houses, which were then set on fire. One source put forward a figure of 157 victims.³⁵⁰