Since December 2017, renewed war broke out between Lendu militias and Hema militias over land disputes in Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The uptick in violence came after ten years of peace between the Lendu and Hema after the First Ituri war between 1999 and 2003, a subset of the Second Congo War that devolved into the long-standing Ituri conflict. The renewed war in 2017 saw the introduction of violent Lendu militia CODECO become the dominant Lendu actor in the region, while groups like Zaïre-FPAC were founded to defend the Hema. Both groups went to war with the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and MONUSCO, and the Islamic State – Central Africa Province (ISCAP) has exploited the situation to conduct massacres in Ituri province.
Background
While land disputes between the Lendu and the Hema have always existed, the two groups have also had a long history of peaceful residence and often intermarry. Government favoritism of the Hema traces back to the Belgian colonial era, where Belgian administrators prioritized Hema in political positions, and subsequently in education, church roles, and more. This has led to the Hema having more political power and power over land. This favoritism continued into independent D.R. Congo and Zaire, where Hema used their political favoritism to obtain even more land under a controversial 1973 land law.
Between 1999 and 2003, amid the Second Congo War, sedentary Lendu farmers and pastoralist Hema herders took up arms and formed militias over land disputes. The Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) and their allied militia the Kisangani faction of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD-K) controlled what is now Ituri. Under Ugandan rule in 1999, Ituri province was created and a Hema was named governor, despite RCD-K protests. Lendu militants took up arms, convinced that the UPDF and RCD-K were backing the Hema in a war against them. Rwanda and the Congolese government both backed opposing militias, leading to a bloody war that did not end until 2003.
The Congolese government then instated a fragile peace with successful elections running Lendu and Hema candidates, along with candidates from the Alur minority. Between 2003 and 2017, despite the presence of MONUSCO and MONUC peacekeepers, the Lendu Patriotic Resistance Front of Ituri led a low-level insurgency in Ituri. After the Congolese government recognized Ituri Province in 2015, Jefferson Abdallah Pene Mbaka (better known as Pene Mbaka), a Lendu, became the first provincial governor. Pacifique Keta Upar, an Alur, was elected as vice governor in 2016 and Hema officials were prevalent in the government.
For ten years, the Lendu and Hema lived in relative peace though the scars of the 1999-2003 war were fresh in many people's minds.
Death of Father Dhunji
The casus belli for the war was the death of Father Florent Dhunji, a Lendu priest in Drodro, on June 5, 2017. Lendu groups immediately began accusing Hema of killing Dhunji and planning on exterminating the Lendu, and a resurgence in hate speech on both sides occurred. In one case, Hema who were publicly drinking began mocking Dhunji's death and the broader Lendu community in Drodro. Dhunji's official cause of death was alcoholism, but no investigation has been carried out. This was inflamed by the Catholic Church's silence on the circumstances revolving around Dhunji's death. However, despite rumors of violence and the increased segregation of Lendu and Hema by youth in those groups, very few inter-ethnic clashes took place between June and December 2017.
Djugu conflict
Uzi violence
The first major skirmish between Lendu and Hema youth took place in the village of Uzi, in Djugu territory on December 17, 2017. Lendu youth had an altercation with a soldier at the military post in Uzi after they tried to steal arms and were identified by Hema women from the village of Maze. The Lendu man apparently tried to steal the weapons as reprisal for FARDC imposition of roadblock taxes. Later, young Hema men went to beat up the Lendu man. The next day, Lendu youth injured three Hema women with a machete in a field in Lendu territory in Ladedjo. Hema youth then burnt down the village of Tete, destroying dozens to hundreds of homes. On the same day as the torching of Tete, MONUSCO announced that they would be closing their base at Bogoro, the site of a brutal 2003 massacre.
Hema said that they were shocked "when neighbors became murderers overnight", but a Lendu leader said that it was not an ethnic conflict. Governor Pene Mbaka announced on December 22 that he managed to negotiate a peace between the communities through dialogue with local leaders. After this speech, there was no reported violence for a month.
February–April 2018 attacks
The second round of attacks began on February 4, when at least 32 people were killed and 400 homes were burned in villages in Bahema-Nord, a Hema community. Three days later, more attacks in Bahema-Nord and Banyani Kilo killed nine people. An attack on February 8 killed 37 people in the same area. More attacks occurred on February 10, when at least 19 people from villages in Bahema-Nord were killed. The largest massacre took place in Rule, where 60 people were killed and the village was burned down. Five Hema were killed in attacks on villages in Bahema Badjere as well. For the most part, large-scale civilian massacres ended in late February, with the exception of five civilians killed between February 24 and 27.
On February 20, Lendu militiamen attacked a FARDC post in Tche, Bahema-Nord and Bakome, Walendu-Djatsi, killing two soldiers. This was the first attack by Lendu militiamen on Congolese government forces, and served as a way for these militias to gather arms and deter any opposition to Lendu attacks.
In March, attacks reinflamed with a massacre by Lendu militants that killed between 36 and 43 people in the villages of Maze and Beliba, Bahema-Nord, on March 1. Between March 1 and 8, at least 31 civilians were killed across thirteen villages in Bahema-Nord and Bahema Banywagi. Five Congolese soldiers were killed as well. On March 13, at least 27 people were killed in the villages of Jjo, Gbi, and Ngazba in Bahema Nord. One soldier was killed and four were injured in Penyi, Walendu-Tatsi, on March 24.
The violence in Djugu largely dissipated after April, and a small string of tit-for-tat attacks followed until August. The attacks between February and March are considered the peak of the Djugu violence in 2018, and there was an attack happening on a village in Bahema-Nord or Walendu-Djatsi every day. The majority of the attacks taking place in Ituri thus far took place in five chiefdoms of Djugu territory; Bahema-Nord, Walendu-Pitsi, Walendu-Djatsi, Walendu-Tatsi, and Bahema Banywagi. In many of these massacres, the militants raped civilians.
Almost all of the attacks targeted Hema and Bagagere, but some Lendu were killed and attacked. No perpetrators were fully identified, but a militia formed in the Lendu Walendu-Pitsi and Walendu-Djatsi chiefdoms was to blame, despite some opaqueness as to whether the attackers were actually Lendu. However, many respondents interviewed in June and July 2018 by PAX For Peace said that the violence did have a strong correlation with local politics, and accused Lendu and Hema leaders - particularly the ex-FPRI Longbe Chabi Linga and ex-UPC Pilo Kamaragi Mulindro - with ex-militant backgrounds for stoking the conflict while publicly calling for peace. The New Humanitarian, citing analysts, said that oil and minerals resources desired by politicians was among the drivers of the war. At least 48,000 people were displaced from the attacks as of March 8. In July, this number had reportedly risen to 350,000.
CODECO involvement and lull
CODECO, a majority-Lendu militia, had been around since the 1970s, originally formed as an agricultural cooperative that also made magical and fetishistic substances. These substances, called dawa, were given to FPRI fighters during the 1999-2003 war to aid them in combat and boost morale. As early as June 2017, CODECO banked on the popular anger of many young Lendu and ex-Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) fighters and began training them for combat. Ituri governor Pene Mbaka attempted to crack down on CODECO legally, but no attempt to disarm the militia or interrupt its training took place.
In August 2018 a new wave of Lendu violence, led by CODECO and its commander Mukwake Mambo and sub-commander Lokana Mambo, targeted FARDC military posts and soldiers. In one attack on FARDC and Congolese National Police (PNC) in the villages of Muvaramu, Songamoya, and Tara on September 16, nine soldiers were killed. Eight days later on September 24, in another FARDC attack on Bule, Mukwake Mambo was wounded and died of his injuries a few days later. Justin Ngudjolo took over as leader of CODECO shortly after. Between December 2017 and August 2018, 19 FARDC soldiers were killed and four were wounded. After September 2018 and until April 2019, the conflict subsided with steady small attacks. This drop in attacks was pinned on the 2018 Congolese elections.
Between December 2017 and August 2018, according to the Dutch institute PAX for Peace, at least eight attackers were killed including Mukwake Mambo, three were taken prisoner, and several were wounded. At least 32 FARDC soldiers and policemen were killed and 46 were injured, and at least 496 civilians were killed and 178 more were injured. In addition, thousands of homes were destroyed and hundreds of livestock were looted and ransacked.
Post-election resurgence
The first major post-election attack began on January 22, when four soldiers and three attackers were killed in a skirmish in Largu. A few weeks later on February 15 another skirmish broke out with surrounding residents fleeing. In April, the pace of attacks by Lendu militias and CODECO increased. Three people - two FARDC soldiers and one policeman - were killed in Nyapala on April 5, and two days later five people were killed at a market. More attacks took place between April 11 and 16, but few casualties were reported.
In the first weeks of May, FARDC took a more proactive role in fighting against CODECO and Lendu militias. Three people were killed in a clash between FARDC and attackers in Walendu Pitsi on May 6 and later seven FARDC soldiers were kidnapped after they tracked the attackers to the Wago forest. Fighting took place along Lake Albert.
Between January 2019 and June 10, 2019, sixteen FARDC soldiers and policemen were killed, seven were taken prisoner, six attackers were killed and several arrested, and 20 civilians were killed in attacks in Djugu and Mahagi territories.
Operation Zaruba ya Ituri
June 2019 massacres
On June 10, 2019, following increased Lendu attacks on Hema communities, gunmen killed four Lendu traders in the village of Bembu-Nzi, including a prominent Lendu trader named Tikpa. In response, Lendu militias and CODECO conducted a spree of massacres on Hema communities, killing at least 400 people and forcing thousands to flee. One particular attack killed 38 people in Tche on June 11, although some estimates say at least 161 people were killed in Tche alone. The attacks lasted for weeks, ending on June 29. At least 360,000 people were displaced in June. In response to the renewed Lendu offensive, the Congolese army launched Operation Zaruba ya Ituri on June 26 with the goal of clearing CODECO militants from the area. At least 20,000 soldiers took part in the operation. MONUSCO joined the operation on June 11, 2020, already having 18,316 personnel in Ituri.
The first success of Operation Zaruba ya Ituri was the clearing of the Wago forest, where CODECO trained and held dawa rituals. Nine soldiers were killed in the clearing of the forest, which had been a staging base for many attacks on civilian communities in the previous two weeks. Despite CODECO attacks earlier in the year and the uptick in attacks in June sometimes targeting Lendu civilians, increased FARDC activity against Lendu militiamen and CODECO pushed some Lendu civilians to sympathize with and join CODECO due to previous favoritism of Hema by the Congolese government. Jean Bamanisa, the governor of Ituri, accused the Banyabwisha of participating in the massacres and the Rwandan government and M23 for supporting them, but there was little evidence to support this.