10/16/2024 DRC (International Christian Concern) — The office of prosecutor Karim Khan announced on Monday that the International Criminal Court will renew its investigation into crimes that have taken place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu Province since 2022. The region has long been torn by sectarian violence, including by the jihadist terrorist group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the militant M23 movement.
The investigation will look at evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity and will encompass actions by any group acting in the area, according to the announcement. Some 120 militant groups are active in the country, making any such investigation complex.
About 95% of DRC’s population identifies with some branch of Christianity. Though M23 is not primarily motivated by religious animosity toward Christians, reports suggest that their attacks affect religious practice significantly and may have some root in ethnoreligious tensions dating back to the Rwandan genocide.
The United States and many other governments accuse neighboring Rwanda of backing M23, an accusation that Rwanda denies despite significant evidence substantiating the claim. After years of dormancy, M23 began launching attacks in 2021 and has since grown to become one of the most powerful militant groups in the DRC.
Other groups, such as the ADF, are explicitly motivated by Islamic extremism and have wrought significant damage on Christian populations and places of worship in recent years. It reportedly joined the Islamic State group (ISIS) affiliate network in 2019 and is a vocal proponent of jihad and Sharia law in areas that it controls.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission to DRC, known as MONUSCO, started withdrawing from the country last month, according to a statement by the force. MONUSCO has worked in the country for more than 13 years and, before the drawdown, boasted nearly 18,000 personnel, including about 14,000 armed troops.
In late 2023, the U.N. Security Council approved the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeeping troops after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi requested a fast-tracked withdrawal some months earlier. The U.N. peacekeeping mission has reduced its presence throughout 2024 amid renewed attacks and continued violence in many areas. There are currently 7.1 million displaced people in the DRC due to the ongoing conflicts there.
While much of the violence in the DRC is tied to ethnic tensions or struggles for territory, the International Criminal Court would do well to investigate the conflict’s influence on religion, especially in cases where religious leaders or sites have been purposely targeted in an act of persecution.
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