Ituri Conflict - Aftermath

Aftermath

On October 11, 2006, as part of the agreement that led to the release of the Nepalese peacekeepers and following a ministerial decree signed on October 2, DRC Defence Minister Adolphe Onusumba announced that FNI leader Peter Karim and MRC leader Martin Ngudjolo were both appointed to the rank Colonel in the DRC army, commanding 3,000 troops each.

The conflict has also seen the abduction and enslavement of civilians by armed troops. On October 16, 2006, Human Rights Watch stated that the DRC government needs to investigate and prosecute members of its army who participated in the abduction of civilians and their use as forced labour and called to end the practice. The whereabouts of nine civilians abducted on September 17 and 20 civilians abducted on August 11 remains unknown.

On October 30, a Congolese army officer, alleged to have been drunk, shot and killed two election officials in the town of Fataki, which provoked a riot. He was sentenced to death the next day. On November 24, DRC's military prosecutor announced that three mass graves, containing the bodies of about 30 people, were discovered in Bavi, Ituri. The commander of the battalion stationed in the town and a captain in charge of maintaining discipline were arrested.

In November 2006 the Ituri Patriotic Resistance Front, the last of the three militias involved in the conflict, agreed to a deal by which up to 5,000 fighters would release hundreds of child soldiers and disarm in exchange for an amnesty. Militia members will be incorporated into the national army and their leaders made officers in the wake of general elections endorsing the government of Joseph Kabila. The FNI became the last militia to begin turning over its weapons in April 2007, though disarmament and demobilization continued through May.