South Kivu : more than 4,000 illegal roadblocks installed by militias and security services

More than 4,000 roadblocks have been listed in the South Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were installed by local militias maintained by Congolese authorities, the army and the police, according to a report from a commission evaluating these roadblocks. Transporters are the first victims of these barriers.

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No one is spared by guards of these barriers, which are visible in the 8 territories and the city of Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, which make up the South Kivu province, bordering Burundi. But it is transporters who pay the heavy price. They say that their business is greatly affected by the installation of these barriers.

“From Uvira to Misisi and from Misisi to Uvira, we are forced to pay an amount of up to 1,000,000 Congolese francs (357 USD). We are working at a loss,” a Congolese driver told SOS Médias Burundi, on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

He is not the only one to complain. E. R, is a sixty-year-old from Bijombo. He says that he has to pay at least $10 for each trip when he goes to the city of Uvira. Between his home and Uvira, there are 7 barriers. They are installed in Mitamba, Buhondo, Biziba, Kirungu, Nyarubwe, Kijaga in particular.

“At each barrier, we pay 3,000 francs,” the sixty-year-old laments. And he complained further : “even children pay”. In this region, residents are extorted by both the army and local armed groups.

In the territories of Uvira, Fizi, Mwenga, Shabunda and Kalehe, residents denounce “the pillaging of our property by the military and police whereas we do not find money to give them”. Others affirm that “even after paying these fees to pass, our belongings are stolen near these roadblocks”.

“Worse still, elements of the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) who are supposed to protect us, beat us up when we travel without money on us”, laments a man from the region. “The luckiest ones are forced to return home or spend a whole day sitting at a roadblock without doing anything”.

Sammy Kalondji, the administrator of the territory of Fizi, has stepped up to demand the removal of these roadblocks.

“I ask all Wazalendo (name given to local militias maintained by Congolese authorities) to remove the roadblocks set up on the Fizi-Uvira section. This amounts to mistreating people,” he denounced. According to this official, each vehicle or motorcycle that passes through this section must pay a passage fee to the militias that control these obstacles.

Last September, the provincial security council met in Shabunda. The provincial minister in charge of security, Albert Kahasha, asked all administrators to get involved so that there are no more illegal barriers in their areas.

Aware of the seriousness of the situation, the Governor of South Kivu, Jean Jacques Purusi, set up a commission to assess these barriers. It recently submitted a report to him. According to the document, “the province of South Kivu as a whole has 4,200 roadblocks”.

In eastern Congo, it is not only in South Kivu where local militias and even foreign armed groups including the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) of Ugandan origin, are setting up roadblocks. In North Kivu and Ituri, local and foreign armed groups have set up roadblocks in the areas they control and installed a parallel administration.

This situation exposes residents to daily exactions and abuses, according to the local civil society, which accuses the central government of having “failed in its mission to protect the Congolese”. The situation persists despite the establishment of a state of siege since May 2021, with the aim of eradicating local and foreign armed groups, particularly in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. Activists continue to ask Congolese authorities to “lift this unpopular measure”.

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A checkpoint of the MONUSCO blue helmets in Uvira in South Kivu ©️ SOS Médias Burundi