Kinshasa – Torture and degrading treatment is widespread and practiced with impunity in DR Congo’s conflict zones, the United Nations said on Wednesday, with over 3 000 cases recorded in the past two years.
A report published by the UN Joint Human Rights Office and the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo found that 93 percent of the recorded 3 618 cases occurred in areas of armed conflict in the central African nation.
Much of eastern DRC is prey to armed groups, many of which are a legacy of regional wars that flared during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Militia attacks against civilians are routine in the volatile region.
On Tuesday alone, rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces – which the Islamic State group claims as its affiliate – killed 10 people in North Kivu province.
According to the UN report, members of armed groups committed 1 833 of recorded cases of torture. It also noted that militiamen sometimes colluded with state security personnel.
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Members of the security forces, for their part, committed 1 293 recorded cases of torture and degrading treatment between April 2019 and May 2022.
The report found that the scale of the problem is likely underestimated and that torture “thrives in a context of relative impunity”.
Only two army officers, 12 police officers and 75 members of armed groups have been convicted of torture over the past two years, for example.
“Torture can never be justified, no matter the circumstances or the context,” Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif said in a statement accompanying the report.
“The DRC authorities must act with urgency and determination to put an end to this scourge”.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@NamuliImmy
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