PRESS RELEASE: Fresh atrocities in Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the name of “security” and “conservation”

Over the weekend of 12th-14th November 2021, in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, at least two whole Batwa villages were burnt to the ground, a man was shot dead, two women were shot and injured and at least one woman who was pregnant is still unaccounted for and feared burnt alive in her house. Villagers fled into the forest to hide.

These events took place during a joint operation by the Congolese army and armed ecoguards from Kahuzi-Biega National Park that specifically targeted Batwa communities living inside the boundaries of the Park. Since these attacks, we understand that a number of Batwa people have been taken prisoner and other community members are fearing the worst for them, having heard rumours of the prisoners experiencing torture and sexual assault.

Unfortunately, there is precedent for this fear: on 23rd July this year, another attack was carried out on one of the communities in the Park, another joint operation of the army and ecoguards, resulting in the death of two men and the burning down of a number of homes. During and following that attack, we also understand that further violence took place against women in the community in particular, resulting in the death of two women and a miscarriage by a third.

The exact justification for these latest raids has been unclear: for example, the Park’s Director suggested in an email sent last week that in relation to the November raid, the army was pursuing armed men who had carried out attacks in the city of Bukavu, some 40 kilometres away, three days before. This explanation is entirely unconvincing, since the attacks in Bukavu actually took place on 3rd November, 10 days before. No one suggested any Batwa played any part in the attacks in Bukavu and that incident 10 days earlier does not explain why Batwa communities were attacked by the army and ecoguards.

 

This is just the latest example of a campaign of terror being carried out against Batwa people who, since 2018, despairing of the failure of the Congolese conservation authorities to live up to promises made in a series of dialogues and meetings, have chosen to return to their ancestral homes within the boundaries of Kahuzi-Biega National Park.

 

The response of the Park authorities has been becoming increasingly harsh. In public communications with organisations outside DRC, the Park Director denies that there are any Batwa communities within the Park at all and that he has excellent relations with the Batwa. Meanwhile, in informal meetings with Batwa community leaders and with local civil society organisations he has demanded that they persuade the people living in the Park to leave and has threatened that there will be further raids if they don’t. Each raid has resulted in serious human rights abuses, and each seems to be worse than the last. None of the responses from the Park have ever addressed the fundamental injustice that the Batwa have experienced: being dispossessed of their ancestral home with no consultation, consent or compensation.

Our perspective is that what is taking place, almost unnoticed, is a concerted campaign to terrorise the Batwa out of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, land which they had cared for for centuries. It is being carried out in the name of conservation, with unfounded accusations from some conservation actors that the Batwa are the ones damaging the area’s incredibly precious ecosystem, and with unfounded suggestions that harassing the Batwa is somehow connected to preserving security.

The Batwa continue to choose to return to their ancestral lands, despite the threats to their lives, because they know that the land is theirs to care for. Surely it makes sense for the conservation authorities to turn their hostility on its head and commit instead to work with the landscape’s traditional guardians, working together with the Batwa as allies, not enemies.