{"id":148469,"date":"2023-05-31T07:30:05","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T05:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/ethnic-targeting-mars-democratic-republic-of-the-congos-electoral-process\/"},"modified":"2023-05-31T07:30:05","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T05:30:05","slug":"ethnic-targeting-mars-democratic-republic-of-the-congos-electoral-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/central-africa\/dr-congo\/ethnic-targeting-mars-democratic-republic-of-the-congos-electoral-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethnic Targeting Mars Democratic Republic of the Congo\u2019s Electoral Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On April 24, the\u00a0Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a>\u2019s electoral commission finalized a nationwide process to update voter lists ahead of general elections slated for December 2023. But as citizens headed to voter registration centers, some were met with violence and discrimination.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In Goma, Bukavu, Nyagenzi, and Uvira in eastern Congo, groups of youths\u00a0threatened, beat<\/a>, and temporarily\u00a0denied<\/a>\u00a0Banyamulenge \u2013 Congolese Tutsi from South Kivu province \u2013 access to registration centers because of their ethnicity.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch spoke to victims, witnesses, and community leaders who confirmed the incidents, including attacks by \u201cWazalendo<\/a>,\u201d youth groups mobilized to defend their South Kivu localities against armed groups, including M23 rebels.<\/p>\n

Since a surge in attacks by the\u00a0Rwanda<\/a>-backed M23 rebels in 2022,\u00a0parties to the conflict have increasingly appealed to ethnic prejudices<\/a>, triggering a wave of\u00a0discrimination\u00a0<\/a>against Banyamulenge and Tutsi communities, whom many in Congo\u00a0consider to be M23 supporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Munyamulenge man told us that Wazalendo beat him and three of his friends as they went to register at a center in Uvira on February 17. \u201cThey hurt my arms, they hit me with nails.\u2026 They told us, \u2018Banyamulenge are Rwandans, they are not going to be registered.\u2019\u201d He was ultimately able to register after the police arrived. A university staffer in Nyagenzi said Wazalendo threw stones at him when he went to register so he went back home. He finally enrolled after police came four days later. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Access to registration centers is essential for citizens to secure their voter\u2019s card, a necessary document for voting also used as an identification document in Congo.<\/p>\n

As the elections near and the crisis in eastern Congo\u00a0continues unabated<\/a>, attacks against Banyamulenge and Tutsis may interfere with other national processes, including the long-awaited\u00a0population census<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0identification process<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Congolese authorities should ensure inclusive elections without fear of discrimination or intimidation on ethnic grounds. They should implement\u00a0comprehensive voter education campaigns<\/a>\u00a0aimed at\u00a0preventing ethnic-based discrimination<\/a>, impartially enforce the law and appropriately prosecute anyone who commits ethnically motivated harassment or attacks, and\u00a0prohibit<\/a>\u00a0discriminatory practices that may lead to further abuses.<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).<\/i><\/p>\n

Source<\/a>
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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download logo On April 24, the\u00a0Democratic Republic of Congo\u2019s electoral commission finalized a nationwide process to update voter lists ahead of general elections slated for December 2023. But as citizens headed to voter registration centers, some were met with violence and discrimination. In Goma, Bukavu, Nyagenzi, and Uvira in eastern Congo, groups of youths\u00a0threatened, beat, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":148470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/60d80c333445d54","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[258,256,4696,33052,6404,281,4691,450,279,280,7239,15784,21395,257,5755,5935,254,15084],"class_list":["post-148469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dr-congo","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-central-africa","tag-congos","tag-democratic","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-dr-congo","tag-dr-congo-news","tag-drc","tag-drc-news","tag-electoral","tag-ethnic","tag-mars","tag-news","tag-process","tag-republic","tag-south-africa-today","tag-targeting"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/60d80c333445d54","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}