What is your personal analysis of the current security situation in Ituri province, with armed attacks against civilians as well as the resurgence of local self-defence militias and others active from abroad such as Thomas Lubanga's CRP, whose headquarters are based in Kampala?

Marcel-Héritier Kapitene: I believe we need to separate two or three distinct yet interconnected dynamics in Ituri, which feed into one another and complicate any lasting way out of the crisis. Firstly, we are seeing the resurgence of armed groups stemming from the wars of the early 2000s. These factions, often built on the ruins of former militias that were defeated or partially integrated into the peace process, are the direct legacy of poor management of the collective trauma caused by past inter-ethnic violence. They originate from the lack of psychological and community follow-up, the institutional vacuum left in the reconstruction of social fabrics, and the persistent feeling of abandonment among populations in the face of repeated massacres. The desire for vengeance remains latent, fuelled by the absence of a comprehensive and credible transitional justice process. Occasional trials and convictions have never been followed by robust reconciliation initiatives or sustainable peaceful coexistence programmes. As long as these wounds remain open, they will continue to serve as a matrix for the cyclical reformation of community-based armed groups.

To this is added the security contagion effect from North Kivu. The geographical and social porosity between North Kivu and Ituri fosters the infiltration of crises. The security haemorrhage caused by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) terrorism in northern North Kivu is gradually spreading towards southern and western Ituri, particularly in the territories of Irumu and Mambasa. These infiltrations exacerbate inter-communal mistrust, undermine economic circuits and trigger a proliferation of local militias. Self-protection organisations, often structured along ethnic lines, are multiplying, oscillating between legitimate community resistance and instrumentalisation for more opaque agendas. (