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Boulevard du 30 Juin, Arret VodaCom, Gombe Division, Kinshasa.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has a long history of hosting refugees but also the country is not known of hosting refugees, the country is known as producing refugees towards neighboring countries. However refugees are still able to be traced are those who came since 1950s up today. DRC does not have clear refugee welcome process and people do come and settle in various communities and sometimes in free spaces on their own.
The number of refugees in DRC is also unknown but we estimate refugees at about 4millions as they range from 1950 up today. Some claim to be now Congolese Citizens and it is one among the causes of ethnic wars in some parts of the country mainly in South Kivu, North Kivu, Ituri and Tchopo, others occupy land and spaces which they claim is theirs and this has created hostilities between them of host communities, some have acquired all Congolese documents and have mixed up, but what is interesting is that in each community people or members of the community are able to tell you who came as foreigners and now settled in the communities.
The presence of Rwandan Refugees in Eastern DRC who are not managed is one among the causes of conflicts between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We believe that a proper management of refugees in DRC will reduce the causes of conflict in the Great Lakes Region alongside with various political reforms which may favor refugees to return back to their countries of origin.
The word refugees in not so much used, what people have are words in their own tongue which means foreigners.
We believe that the solutions to refugee problematic in DRC will restore peace at 60% in Province like South Kivu, North Kivu, Ituri and Tchopo. In order to do so we are coming up with a strategy of “ Effective Refugee Protection in DRC”, this focuses on research and advocacy especially Policy Advocacy, currently we are advocating for s Law which will promote the protection of refugees in DRC since 1950 up to now.
Awareness activities among refugees and host communities in order to live together and reduce tensions especially that refugees are known, the issues of land between refugees and host communities, and the recognition of refugee settlements but also the identification of all refugees and the necessity to provide them relief aid. Then lastly we are promoting the three durable solutions: Resettlement, Local Integration and Voluntary Repatriation, however because voluntary repatriation has been highly abused in DRC, we do not focus on it as per now.
Our activities also do focus on livelihoods and economic empowerment of refugees and also the protection of their rights. Many initiatives are being put in place currently because refugees are among our priorities now.
In this way we are also focusing our activities on Congolese and other people who claim they are Congolese who are in other different countries, we should ensure that their return may not be the cause of conflict again. We are proposing a refugee status to all those who took guns and still have guns claiming they want a Congolese Citizenship. We do not need to start a war in order to become or claim for a citizenship yet through local integration we can reach to that goal.
North Kivu Province will be the Headquarters for all our refugees activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and still Monsignor Christophe Muzihirwa will be our Symbol for refugee Activities and the month of October will be focused on the protection of refugees in DRC, through commemorations.
