Nyatura Groups

For information on Nyatura’s main location of activities, including human rights violations, see 5.1 North Kivu and for links to the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR see 4.1. Forces democratiqus de liberation du Rwanda (FDLR).

For further information on the recruitment and use of child soldiers of the Nyatura Groups see 8.1.1. North Kivu.

At

main armed groups active in Masisi and Lubero, North Kivu, of which the Nyatura Groups are one, as included in the following report: UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO),

Covering events from January 2017 to October 2018 a report by MONUSCO stated that [unofficial translation]:

The main actors in the Masisi territory are the Nyatura, the FDLR, the Alliance of Patriots for a free and sovereign Congo (APCLS) de Janvier and the APCLS Mapenzi, as well as the Mai-Mai Kifuafua. Although numerous and active throughout the Masisi territory, none of these groups would have more than 200 combatants. The Mai-Mai Nyatura are distinguished by the number and the bloody nature of documented human rights violations. This group, which brings together at least a dozen different factions, first formed in the 2000s in support of Congolese Hutu populations. Although some factions are supported by FDLR fighters from the National Council for Renewal and Democracy (CNRD), factions between Nyatura factions

117 Caleb Weiss (The Long War Journal blog), Analysis: Islamic State claims in the DRC, 30 May 2019.

See also The Jamestown Foundation, Has Islamic State Really Entered the Congo and is an IS Province There a Gamble?, in Terrorism Monitor Volume: 17 Issue: 11, 31 May 2019

118 See Congo Research Group, Inside the ADF Rebellion, A Glimpse into the Life and Operations of a Secretive Jihadi Armed Group, November 2018

and the CNRD are recurrent, as are confrontations between Nyatura factions. These confrontations are often aimed at defending economic and / or territorial interests.¹¹⁹

The same source already noted in January 2018 that [unofficial translation] “Among all the parties to the conflict [in Eastern DRC] the Mai-Mai Nyatura fighters are the main perpetrators among the armed groups (10%)”.

The October 2018 Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative’s report noted the following in relation to the Mai-Mai Nyatura:

A Congolese militia formed in 2010, the Mai-Mai Nyatura (Nyatura translates to ‘hit them hard’) is allied with the FDLR and FARDC against M23’s support of Hutu interests. In 2012, certain Nyatura forces were integrated into the FARDC. Notwithstanding their formal integration, individuals associated with the MaiMai Nyatura have retained a significant degree of independence.¹²¹

The 2018 Conflict Barometer produced by the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research noted that “Various Nyatura factions, predominantly recruiting among Hutu communities, mainly operated in Lubero, Rutshuru, Masisi, and Walikale territories, North Kivu. Nyatura groups cooperated with the predominantly Hutu armed group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and repeatedly clashed with the National Council for Renewal and Democracy (CNRD) *…+ Reportedly, FDLR provided training, ammunition and uniforms to Nyatura groups, while the latter provided security for FDLR camps”

The New Humanitarian [formerly IRIN News] reported to have met the two commanders of the Nyatura and reported in July 2018:

But in rare interviews, IRIN met two of the most powerful Nyatura commanders: Domi and John Love.

A squat man with a wide smile, Domi stood on the slope of a remote hilltop base in a plain Congolese army uniform sold to him, he said, by a starving army soldier. His baby-faced fighters lounged and chatted in the elephant grass, a few heavy weapons distributed between them. But what he lacked in manpower, he made up for in rhetoric.

“We are sure that one day we can take power,” he said.

While most know Domi, whose real name is Dominique Ndaruhutse, as the leader of a murderous local militia, the warlord and his unit commander, John Love, see themselves differently.

In separate interviews they introduced themselves not as Nyatura but as the military wing of a political group they called the Collective of Movements for Change (CMC).

They described the CMC as a rainbow coalition uniting 10 different armed groups from across the region. Its objective is not to defend ethnic Hutus or fight against opposing militias, they say, but to challenge President Kabila *…+

119 UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), Détérioration de la situation des droits de l’homme dans le Masisi et le Lubero (NordKivu) et défis relatifs à la protection des civils entre janvier 2017 et octobre 2018, December 2018, p. 8-9 [Unofficial translation provided by a COI researcher]

120 UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), Note du BCNUDH sur les principals tendances des violations des droits de l’homme en Janvier 2018, January 2018, p. 1 [Unofficial translation provided by a COI researcher]

121 Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, Democratic Republic of the Congo Country Report: Children

& Security, October 2018, 2. State, Non-State, and International Actors, b) Non-State Actors, Mai-Mai, p. 16

122 Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, Conflict Barometer 2018, February 2019, Sub-Saharan Africa, DR Congo (Mayi-Mayi et al.), p.73

The CMC is one of a number of new coalitions to emerge in eastern Congo with the stated objective of challenging Kabila. In Butembo, to the north of Rutshuru, is the National Movement of Revolutionaries (MNR), which includes a cluster of mostly Nande Mai-Mai leaders, including some Mazembe factions.¹²³

Human Rights Watch reported on the conviction of former Congolese army soldier, Marcel Habarugira, in April 2019 by a military court in Goma, North Kivu, who led a “faction of an armed group known as Nyatura”, and that the group “received armed and training from the Congolese army”, carrying out “many of its worst attacks in 2012”.

The same source provided the additional information on the group:

While many of the fighting groups formed by the former Hutu soldiers have their own individual names or are named after their commanders, they are often referred to collectively as the Nyatura. The Nyatura have primarily attacked ethnic Tembo, Nyanga, and Hunde civilians over the years.

Habarugira’s troops were responsible for many of the worst attacks on civilians in southern North Kivu and parts of South Kivu provinces in 2012. Together with another Hutu group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), Nyatura fighters summarily executed civilians, raped scores of women and girls, and burned down hundreds of homes in an apparent effort to “punish” civilians accused of supporting or collaborating with the

“enemy.” *…+

Many of the worst attacks by Nyatura fighters took place between April and November 2012 during operations against the Raia Mutomboki, another armed group in the region, and their allies.¹²⁵

With regards to child recruitment, Human Rights Watch noted that the Nyatura commanders “have forcibly recruited scores of children into their ranks”, recruiting them

“on the road to the market, in the market, on their way home from school, or while the children were farming or walking to their fields” as well as re-cruiting them with Nyatura commanders forcing children “to rejoin the movement after they had been demobilized and reunited with their families”.

The UN Group of Experts on the DRC stated in their report covering events from 10 November 2017 to 8 April 2018 that combatants of the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) “provided training, ammunition and uniforms to Nyatura armed group members, especially Nyatura Domi, which reportedly comprises 400 to 500 men, mostly armed and based in the Bukombo groupement in Rutshuru territory”.

The same source further noted that “Nyatura combatants often attacked combatants from the Conseil national pour le renouveau et la démocratie (CNRD), an FDLR faction that split in May 2016, as well as FARDC. Nyatura combatants also taxed the local population, at times in conjunction with FDLR combatants *…+ In early 2018, there were reports of Nyatura Domi and John Love clashing with Mai-Mai Mazembe near Nyanzalé. The December 2017 killing of

123 The New Humanitarian, “Whoever they met, they would cut and kill”: displaced Congolese recount rebel atrocities, 12 July 2018

124 Human Rights Watch, DR Congo: Warlord’s Conviction Reveals Trial Flaws, Former Congolse Soldier Guilty of Rape, use of Child Soldiers, 19 April 2019

125 Human Rights Watch, DR Congo: Warlord’s Conviction Reveals Trial Flaws, Former Congolse Soldier Guilty of Rape, use of Child Soldiers, 19 April 2019

126 Human Rights Watch, DR Congo: Warlord’s Conviction Reveals Trial Flaws, Former Congolse Soldier Guilty of Rape, use of Child Soldiers, 19 April 2019

127 UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Final report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 4 June 2018, II. Armed groups, A. Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda, para. 22

Nyatura leader Kasongo Kalamo by CNRD in Mweso, Masisi territory, was followed by clashes between members of Kasongo ’s group and CNRD combatants near Mweso”.

A blog post on the website of the Kivu Security Tracker noted that “Nyatura Kavumbi’s commander surrendered to the FARDC on April 2nd [2019] in Kirumbu, Masisi territory.

Talks are also underway for the surrender of other armed groups: with the Nyatura Kalume

Matthias in Lumbishi, Kalehe territory, since mid-April [2019]; and with the Raia Mutomboki

Maheshe on April 20th, in Nzibira Walungu territory. The Nyatura Ngwiti are also reportedly

en route to Muheto to surrender to the FARDC”.