On June 5, 2000, the city of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) became the scene of intense indiscriminate shelling and firing at the hands of the Rwandan and Ugandan armies.
For six days, the civilian population was trapped. Electricity and water were cut. Some civilians risked moving within the city to get to a nearby hospital or a church where they thought they would be safer or to find water or food. Homes were damaged by the shelling or pillaged, women were raped, hundreds of people were killed, and thousands were injured. These crimes have been thoroughly documented by Congolese civil society and the United Nations (UN).
This briefing by Amnesty International takes stock of what has been done by the Congolese authorities since these crimes happened and how survivors of the Kisangani war are living today.
It is based on research in Kisangani and Kinshasa in October 2024, including interviews with over 50 individuals, including survivors and justice sector officials. Amnesty International also analyzed over a hundred documents including reports, laws, judicial decisions and articles. Our research concludes that victims and survivors have been denied justice and impunity for perpetrators prevails to date.
In 25 years, not one single individual has been brought to court to answer for these crimes. There have not been any criminal judicial investigations or prosecutions. At the international level, the ICC is not competent for crimes committed before 2002. At the national level, Congolese courts, both military and civilian, have never opened an investigation. There was no political will to initiate or back up justice efforts because of the peace deal negotiated at the end of the Second Congo War. Political leaders, among them former belligerents, had no interest in seeing those proceedings take place; and the courts suffer from lack of independence.