The Courts Family

DRC News - April 2014

This is from a DRC Adoptee parent and is part of a long post. But I thought it explained very well some of the issues...

.......Why has the Congolese government (via DGM, DRC immigration) suspended the issuance of exit letters for internationally adopted Congolese children?? The most often quoted reason I see put forth by most of the supporters of BEB and CHIFF is that rehoming concerns in the U.S. is the reason for the suspension. If that is the case, than why is the suspension applied to every foreigner adopting from DRC? Why is it not limited to only the U.S.? I believe the suspension has less to do with rehoming issues than it has to do with issues around power, corruption, and the practices of in-country staff of foreign agencies and organizations that facilitate adoptions in DRC. If you have followed media reports coming out of DRC over the past four years regarding adoption (for example, through Radio Okapi), you will have read reports of child trafficking, orphanage raids, and illegal border crossings. If you have followed individual stories of adoption in DRC (via blogs and stories in the U.S. media from adoptive parents), you will have learned of falsification of documents, DGM bribing, siblings spilt apart, lost referrals (only to have them referred to other agencies), abuse of children in orphanages, false abandonment reports, coercion of birth parents to relinquish children, and high foster care fees without documented expenses (average of $500/month/child), monthly orphanage donations (average of $300/month/child), and child finder fees/social service referral fees (average of $1000-1500 per referral). If you have followed the embassy announcements and update calls of the past 2-3 years, you will also have found concerns of corruption, false documents, bribery, illegal border crossings, and backdated court documents. All of this information is publicly available, and all of it paints a very clear picture of endemic corruption and fraud in the international adoption business in DRC.


DRC News - Mar 2015

http://childrendeservefamilies.com/why-the-drc-suspension-on-exit-letters-for-orphans-is-illegal/

Why the DRC “suspension” on exit letters for orphans is illegal
March 23, 2015DR Congo, State Department Policy
In September 2013, the executive branch of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) announced that it had suspended the issuance of “exit letters” to Congolese orphans already legally adopted by foreigners. My daughter was one of those children.

The DRC has gone far beyond any previous adoption ban or suspension, by restricting already-adopted children from leaving the country. Even Russia allowed already-adopted children to leave the country when it implemented its adoption ban. At least 13 children adopted by Americans have died from preventable, treatable illnesses since their detention began.

I can’t help but think that the DRC detention is illegal according to DRC and international law. Here is why:

Background on Congolese law

The general consensus of legal experts is that the exit letter requirement is not an actual law, but a new policy implemented unilaterally by President Kabila and his military police. Most governments treat passports functionally as permission to leave the country, but the president of DRC has spontaneously created a separate administrative requirement beyond passports for adopted children: special permission by the military police. This permission is referred to as an “exit letter.”

Mystery and rumor surrounds the exit letter regulation, which is nowhere to be found in DRC’s written laws. No one seems to have actually seen a written regulation, for that matter. There are disputes about whether the authorization even needs to be in the form of a letter. Congolese attorneys, judges and legal scholars question the existence of the regulation, as well as its due process and discriminatory violations under the DRC constitution. It seems inconceivable that authorization has to be in the form of a specific letter, granted by only one office in the eleventh largest country in the world, as the military police have recently insisted.

Congolese legal experts argue that the detention of adopted children is unconstitutional. The executive branch is essentially overruling adoptions approved by the judiciary. There has been no due process. And the policy clearly discriminates against orphans, a vulnerable group of people with special status in international law.

The motivation behind the exit letter regulation is two-fold: (1) to limit the civil liberties of select Congolese citizens at will and without notice, often for political gain and (2) to make money for the military police, who use exit letters to extort money.

For example, in 2009, when adoptions began in DRC, military police stationed at the airports did not ask adoptive families for exit letters. Military police realized they could extort money from foreign adoptive families, began charging for this piece of paper and would not let adopted children leave the country without it. Then the department of women and children decided they also wanted in on the action, and they began charging money for “B-letters,” which became a prerequisite to the “exit letters.” The U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa responded by publicly calling Congolese officials corrupt and directed all the adoptive families to not pay fees for these letters. Then the DRC stopped issuing letters for all the families and insisted that adopted children couldn’t leave the country. Ironically, the exit letter, which is nothing more than a tool of corruption, came to be regarded as a legitimate requirement for leaving the country.

The exit letter has no bearing on the adoption process. Therefore, exit letters are not required to obtain U.S. visas or enter the United States.

The military police have stated in the past that a future law would invalidate, retroactively, already completed adoptions. But such a law would be ex post facto, and therefore unconstitutional, much like the exit letter regulation itself.

Most recently, the DRC government announced that the ban/moratorium is supposedly “over” (although adopted children are still being detained and blocked from leaving the DRC), but that finalized adoption decrees will now be reopened and reviewed by an inter-ministerial committee. I don’t know if the DRC Constitution has 3 separate branches (executive, judicial, legislative), but if so, a ministry’s overruling of a court order would probably be unconstitutional.

International Law

The detention of adopted children violates international law. For example:

The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR):

freedom from arbitrary detention (Article 9(1));
the right to emigrate (Article 12(2));
children’s right to the protections due to minors (Article 24);
the right to be free from discrimination; and
the right to effective remedies in domestic law (general clauses).
The International Convention of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR):

special measures of protection and assistance for children, without any discrimination for reasons of parentage or other conditions (Article 10.3);
the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions (Article 11.1);
the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including the healthy development of the child (Article 12);
the right of everyone to education (Article 13); and
the right to take part in cultural life and to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress (Article 15); and
non-discrimination as to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or social origin, property, birth or other status (non-discrimination clause).
It can be also argued that DRC is violating the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Although the DRC never ratified the Convention on Child Abduction, this treaty is so widely recognized that certain courts on international human rights seem to recognize it as “custom,” and therefore it has universal relevance when considering human rights violations.

The Current Situation

Fortunately, there are many good Congolese officials who refuse to use children as political pawns. These officials have authorized many children to leave the Congo and reunite with their loving adoptive families. I am thankful every day that this kindness, respect for the law, and recognition of my daughter’s right to her loving parents resulted in her release.

Sadly, adoptive families are now harassed by extremists who support all obstacles to adoption, even when that obstacle is plainly nothing more than a hostage situation. These extremists accuse families of “smuggling” and “trafficking” their own legally adopted children, just because the dictator of an authoritarian regime will not admit publicly that children are being released.

When we don’t talk about a child’s right to adoption as a human right, more countries shut down their adoption programs and nonsensical, anti-adoption rhetoric hijacks the dialogue. The U.S.’s lack of adoption advocacy has created a void in international child welfare policy that has resulted in more children than ever before living without safe, permanent families. With better advocacy for a child’s right to loving parents, my daughter could have come home a long time ago.

*NOTE*: The purpose of this post is to explore the legality of the DRC detention of adopted children in the context of a Congolese or international lawsuit. This blog post is NOT meant to suggest that anyone should leave DRC without proper authorization.


DRC News - June 2015

Democratic Republic of the Congo
June 2, 2015
The United States Department of State Strongly Recommends Against Adopting from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC):

This Alert Supercedes the Alert Issued on October 6, 2014


Although the Congolese government has taken steps to address the ongoing exit permit suspension, the Department of State continues to ask all adoption agencies not to refer new Congolese adoption cases for U.S. prospective adoptive parents. The Department of State strongly recommends against initiating an adoption in the DRC at this time. The Congolese government has stated that pending legislative changes will suspend or invalidate future adoption decrees.
We continue to work with the Congolese government so that Congolese children with finalized adoptions waiting for an exit permit can join their adoptive families as soon as possible. We remain committed to engaging with the Congolese government on long-term adoption reforms.

DRC News - August 2015

http://www.france24.com/en/20150818-dr-congo-blocked-foreign-adoptions-children-france

Blocked adoptions in DR Congo: ‘It’s like our children are in prison’

Text by Guillaume GUGUEN
Latest update : 2015-08-18
More than a thousand legally adopted children from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have spent the past two years languishing in their orphanages, their arrivals at their new homes blocked by a diplomatic deadlock.

Florence and David (names have been changed) have wavered for two years between hope and disappointment. They have been repeatedly told that the arrival of their new son is imminent, only to have it postponed indefinitely. “What more do we have to do to show that we are ‘clean’?” they ask despairingly. “They have been announcing his arrival since May, only to have it blocked in the end.”

Now in their 40s, Florence and David live in Gironde in southwest France. They are just one of some 300 French families who have legally adopted Congolese children -- children who, nevertheless, remain in their orphanages because of a 2013 freeze on exit permits imposed by the authorities in Kinshasa.

An August 14 cabinet meeting, with President Joseph Kabila in attendance, was convened to look into the issue, but it failed to break the gridlock and the matter was adjourned. “They failed to achieve a quorum, since many ministers were on vacation,” Florence said. “And in matters such as this, all members of the cabinet must agree. Now we have to wait until September.”

Social workers, psychiatrists, medical tests

For the frustrated couple it’s another month of waiting for the boy who has shared their family name since June 2013. And another month in which Florence and David cannot talk to or see their child, who is now more than 6 years old. “The DRC prohibits all direct contact,” Florence explained. “For the past two years we have exchanged photos. We write him little notes, and he has sent us drawings and prints of his hands.”

This enforced separation is particularly hard to bear for a couple that has already done so much to prove that they are ready to welcome a child into their home. “Everything has been done legally,” said Florence. “We went through an OAA (authorised adoption authority) that is linked to the foreign ministry. After receiving approval in 2012, we were evaluated for more than a year. They came to our home, we had numerous interviews with a social worker, we were questioned by two psychiatrists, we submitted to medical tests, and then our application was passed to a committee. We were able to prove that we were parents who had carefully thought through our decision to adopt. We are not like some American families who, in the past, did abominable things.”

The United States, which accounts for most international adoptions, has been shaken in recent years by cases that border on child trafficking. In 2013, a Reuters journalist uncovered a network of parents who rid themselves of their adopted children by offering them to other families on Facebook or on Yahoo groups. According to the report, more than 260 children ?? most between 9 and 12 years of age and predominantly female ?? were exchanged that year just on Yahoo. Some of them were transferred, outside of any legal framework, to families that the social services knew had a history of mistreating or sexually abusing their biological children.

Opposing gay adoptions

High-profile cases such as these have prompted some countries to tighten their rules for international adoptions. Adding to the complications is the fierce opposition to gay adoption in some of the children’s countries of origin. In suspending exit permits in 2013, Kinshasa justified the move by claiming that some adopted Congolese children had been either mistreated or adopted by gay families.

In addition to the hundreds of French families who are still waiting, the Congolese blockade has affected a thousand more families, predominantly from Canada, America, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. “Some have been waiting for four years,” according to Adoption RDC, a parents advocacy group of which Florence and David are members.

At the beginning of August, US senators officially demanded that Congolese authorities speed up processing of the adoption dossiers now on hold. In 2014 French President François Hollande sent a letter to his Congolese counterpart that resulted in the eventual departures of eight adopted children. But the families accuse officials of doing nothing since then to end the deadlock. “If the Quai d’Orsay (France’s foreign ministry) does not raise the pressure and push for a resolution, nothing will happen,” Florence said. “The French authorities do not seem as invested in the issue as those of some other nations. Maybe they are working on it, but if so they are not communicating, so we do not know. It does not seem to be a priority.”

‘Trust issues’

Contacted by FRANCE 24, the French embassy in Kinshasa maintains that it is monitoring the situation closely. “In consultation with the representatives of other foreign nations concerned, we are in regular contact with the Congolese authorities. We have had positive feedback on the possible outcomes of some of the cases, but have had a problem with some foreign families who have tried to leave with the children via Zambia. It is a complicated issue and one that involves the highest Congolese authorities. The Congolese people have expressed concern about gay parents and want to be sure that Congolese laws are respected. There are also trust issues vis-à-vis the procedures involved, and we have to do a lot of explaining.”

Meanwhile, the waiting families grow a bit more worried every day. Many orphanages lack the necessary resources or have poor sanitary conditions. According to Adoption RDC, 10 children adopted by foreigners have died so far in 2015 with authorities exhibiting “almost total indifference”.

“We know where our son’s orphanage is located, and we exchange photos with other parents,” said Florence. “Life there is difficult; access to water is provided by a single tap. In some of the dormitories the beds have mattresses but not mosquito nets, increasing the risk of malaria. But the children are not abused, and the staff has done what it can with what is available.”

Like all of the children awaiting exit permits, the young Congolese boy adopted by Florence and David is not going to school. “We tried but were not successful,” Florence said. "It’s very complicated to send money and to be sure that it is being used wisely. The toys and books we sent over never reached the orphanage. We don't have much control over the process, and we don't know how to meet his needs. I am unhappy for our family, which remains incomplete, and for all of the children, who have so little. They are not sufficiently nourished physically, intellectually or with affection. It’s like they are in prison.”

This article was translated from the original in French.

DRC News - Sept 2015

No Exit
Congolese President Joseph Kabila is shamefully preventing adopted children from leaving the country.
President Joseph Kabila, using kids as pawns.

By J. Peter Pham Sept. 4, 2015, at 2:15 p.m.
Ever since he inherited the presidency of the ironically-named Democratic Republic of the Congo from his brutish warlord father a decade a half ago without even the barest fig leaf of legal justification, Joseph Kabila has effectively held the entire population of Africa's fourth most-populous country hostage to his ambitions. His self-declared "re-election" in 2011 was roundly denounced as "treachery, lies, and terror" by Congo's Roman Catholic bishops, whose nearly 40,000 trained poll watchers provided exhaustive evidence to back for the church leaders' assertion.

Now drawing to the end of his tenure (ironically, Kabila fils is term-limited under ironclad provisions of a constitution he himself promulgated, presumably without careful study) and facing the unpleasant prospect of not only losing the only job he's ever held, but also possibly running the risk of being hauled off to The Hague to join his onetime vice president on the docket before the International Criminal Court, the Congolese incumbent has been trying every conceivable trick to delay next year's elections, from a failed attempt to mandate a cumbersome census before the poll to the jailing of pro-democracy youth activists to the current drive to split the country's 11 provinces into 26. But insofar as sheer cynicism and pure evil goes, nothing beats the regime's treatment of more than 1,300 orphans and the loving American and European families that have opened their hearts and homes to them.

Two years ago, Kabila's regime suspended the issuance of so-called "exit letters" that permitted orphans whose adoptions had already been finalized by Congolese courts as well as the home governments of their new families to leave the country for their new homes. As child welfare advocate and adoptive parent Katie Jay noted earlier this year in the Chronicle of Social Change, not even Vladimir Putin's Russia went so far after it restricted international adoptions as to prevent already-adopted children from leaving. As a result of this policy, an estimated 400 children adopted by American families and nearly 1,000 adopted by families in Europe have had to live in orphanages.

There are several conclusions to be drawn from all this. First and foremost, the situation is heartbreakingly tragic, especially for the families that have been caught in this legal twilight zone. Secondly, it demonstrates yet again the lawless nature of Kabila's rule where the requirement for "exit letters" – which can be obtained from only one office in a country more than twice size of California and Texas combined – has no basis in law and which underscores the executive branch's contempt for decisions of the judiciary that approved the adoptions. Third, so poor is the governance in the Congo that the original crime against the rights of the children and their families quickly metastasizes into other crimes as the corrupt security services seize upon the policy to extort money in exchange for facilitating the approval of the desperately needed "exit letters." The result is a fresh opportunity for well-connected regime supporters with a wink and a nod from the top, just like in the days of the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko: "Débrouillez-vous!" ("Fend for yourself!")

A number of members of the United States Congress have taken notice of the plight of the Congolese orphans and their American families. During the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit last year, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., pressed the issue in his meeting with the younger Kabila. His Senate counterpart, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told the New York Times earlier this year that he was working with the State Department to ensure a permanent lifting of the suspension of the exit visas.

Last month, Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Amy Klobucher, D-Minn., sent a letter, co-signed by 136 lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and the Senate, calling on the Congo's government to expedite the resolution of the blocked adoption cases: "Due to the delay in processing the outstanding adoption cases, we understand that at least one child has unnecessarily died despite already possessing a valid visa with which to immediately enter the United States. Other children remain in unstable conditions. Furthermore, some of our constituents have put their lives in the United States on hold, relocating to the Democratic Republic of Congo to be closer to and properly care for their adopted children."

The problem, however, is that the group of U.S. lawmakers addressed themselves to their Congolese counterparts, the president of the Senate and the speaker of the National Assembly. The real power in the country is in the hands of the very same President Kabila who created this crisis in the first place – as he has in so many other cases since coming to power in 2001 when just 29 years old – by manipulating others to achieve his principal objective of holding on to power and avoiding accountability at all costs. In fact, some European commentators have begun asking if the Congolese ruler's decision to block adoptions, which has hit U.S. and French families most, isn't an intentional reprisal against the strong stance by Washington and Paris against any extension of his presidency beyond 2016, or at least an attempt to coin a few additional negotiating chips.

Thus the orphans and their new families are, sadly enough, just the latest pawns in a game that will only end if the international community can muster the political will and resources to ensure that the Congolese constitution is respected and a credible democratic transition takes place on time next year.

DRC News - Elections 2015

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/drc-elections-delayed-by-four-years-troubling-not-surprising-1526669

November 1, 2015 12:09 GMT

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government has said that presidential elections due to be held in November 2016 will be delayed by up to four years, saying the country is not prepared to head to the polls. Despite always maintaining that the two-term limit set by the constitution would be respected, the announcement seemingly confirms President Joseph Kabila's intentions to cling to power using any means necessary.

A spokesman for the ruling coalition said that a national census and revision to voter rolls must first take place to guarantee the credibility of the vote. Kabila has been accused of using a number of tactics, including an unrealistic election calendar and deferring the disbursement of funds to the country's Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to stay in office beyond the end of his mandate.


The issue of presidential third terms in Africa is highly prevalent, with Burundi and Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) being plagued by violence over the issue. Indeed dozens of people died in the DRC during anti-Kabila protests that turned violent in January, and the latest attempts to subjugate the political will of the masses is likely to stoke tensions further. Government officials have also been accused by human rights campaigners of hiring thugs to violently attack peaceful anti-Kabila demonstrators with clubs and sticks in September in return for $65 (£43, €58). Free and fair elections in November 2016, followed by a peaceful transition of power would mark an historic first for the Central African nation.

"We need to say the truth to the Congolese people that, in the current conditions, we are not able to organise the elections. So, the people must grant us two to four years," coalition spokesman Andre Alain Atundu told reporters in the mineral-rich Lubumbashi province. Kabila has not commented publicly so far, but his Information Minister Lambert Mende has always insisted that the president will respect the constitutional limit. The continent's largest copper producer had previously planned to hold a string of elections over the next year (local, provincial and parliamentary polls), which would culminate in a presidential vote.

A need for open and transparent elections

In September Moise Katumbi, the former governor of the powerful Lubumbashi province resigned from Kabila's People's Party for Reconstruction and Development in protest at the president's undemocratic attempts to prolong his tenure. Following the news that elections would be delayed, Katumbi said: "The ruling coalition's call to delay national elections is troubling but unfortunately not surprising. The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo have spoken through their Constitution that they do not want a president for life – and that they want presidents to be limited to no more than two five-year terms. More than that, the Congolese people want regular, free, fair, and transparent elections - and that should start with a national election in the fall of 2016.

"In order for democracy to flourish in the DRC we must demonstrate to ourselves and the world that we are able to achieve a peaceful and lawful transition of power," Katumbi added.

Earlier this month, the UN warned that election-related violence could erupt again and reverse any progress that has been achieved so far. "The political situation in the DRC is increasingly marked by the electoral process [and] political tensions are running high ahead of the 2016 presidential and legislative polls," said Martin Kobler, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the country.

"The conduct of peaceful, timely and credible elections in November 2016 would send a clear message to the world that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a nation that respects its Constitution, a nation keen on a peaceful transition of power, a nation that will consolidate peace," Kobler added.

DRC News - Legislation 2016

Congo drafts new adoption legislation, reviews pending cases

By SALEH MWANAMILONGO
Associated Press

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/31001329/congo-drafts-new-adoption-legislation-reviews-pending-cases#.VqBIqPOZxpw.mailto

First seen on Jan 16, 2016

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) - Congo has drafted new adoption legislation and reviewed cases pending since it halted international adoptions in 2013, the government said Tuesday.

Among the recommendations in the legislation, international adoptions will only be allowed if solutions in Congo are lacking, both in the family and public, said government spokesman Lambert Mende. The new law also states that those seeking to adopt must present themselves before a tribunal in Congo and adoptions will only be considered from countries with good diplomatic relations with Congo, he said.

The law obliges the government "to fight against human trafficking as well as other risks to which children may be exposed when taken from their natural environment for permanent care in another country," said Mende.

Authorities in Congo put a halt to international adoptions in 2013, saying their adoption system was beset by corruption and falsified documents. The adoptions had been legally approved by the Congolese courts but then the government suspended the issuing of exit permits, causing heartache and frustration for families around the world.

In November, Congolese authorities approved exit permits for about 72 children - 14 for children adopted by Americans and about 58 for children adopted by Canadian and European families. But more than 1,000 children whose adoptions had been approved remain in Congolese orphanages and foster homes pending the completion of the new adoption law.

The Congo embassy in Washington says the draft law will be voted on in March.

"The government has completed its review of all international adoption applications that have been pending since the establishment of a moratorium in 2013," Francois Balumuene, Congo's ambassador to the United States, said in a statement. "Adoptive parents will be informed of decisions made on these cases by their respective embassies soon."

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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DRC News - April 2016
In Congo, Wars Are Small and Chaos Is Endless

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/world/africa/in-congo-wars-are-small-and-chaos-is-endless.html?_r=1

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
APRIL 30, 2016


NYUNZU, Democratic Republic of Congo — Deep in the forest, miles from any major city, lies an abandoned cotton factory full of the dispossessed.

There is no police force guarding it. No electricity or running water inside. No sense of urgency or deep concern by the national authorities to do much about it.

Instead, as the days pass, hundreds of displaced people make cooking fires or sit quietly on the concrete factory floor. Dressed in rags, they stare into space, next to huge rusted iron machinery that has not turned for decades. They are members of the Bambote, a marginalized group of forest dwellers who are victims of one of the obscure little wars that this country seems to have a talent for producing.

“It’s like we don’t exist,” said Kalunga Etienne, a Bambote elder.

This is what the Democratic Republic of Congo, the biggest country in sub-Saharan Africa and one that has stymied just about all efforts to right it, has become: a tangle of miniwars.

More than 60 armed groups are operating in North Kivu and South Kivu Provinces, including a growing Islamist insurgency, whose fighters have hacked hundreds of people to death. Beyond that, there are remnants in the Uele area of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group that specializes in abducting children and turning them into killers; predatory rebels in Ituri; Bakata separatists in Katanga; armed factions in Maniema; fighters in the Nyunzu area; and youth militias in the capital, Kinshasa.

Few nations in Africa, if not the world, are home to as many armed groups. Even after billions of dollars in aid, one of the largest peacekeeping missions in United Nations history and substantial international attention over two decades, Congo’s government is incapable of providing the most elemental service: security.

Fragmentation. Factionalization. Decay. Ungoverned space. Ungovernable space. These are the terms used by aid workers and academics to describe Congo today. And it is likely to get worse.

In the coming months, Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila, is constitutionally required to step down. But he has shown no intention of doing so.

Mr. Kabila is vastly unpopular, partly because of the miniwars, but also because of the widespread belief that he has enriched himself and his family while ignoring the millions of desperately poor Congolese. There have been deadly protests against his attempts to sidestep term limits and extend his rule. Raucous demonstrations erupted on April 20 in Lubumbashi, one of Congo’s biggest cities.

Though Mr. Kabila’s forces scored an important victory against one large rebel group, the M23, in 2013, many other armed groups have splintered into dangerous pieces. And new ones have recently sprung up, like the militias in the Nyunzu area that have killed hundreds.

There are many reasons for this, but the most widely cited are a pattern of impunity and increased local tensions over land and other resources. Other factors may be the government’s poor record of integrating former rebels into the national army and its failure to establish control in areas where larger rebel groups used to operate, which has created opportunities for new armed factions to take over.

The worry is that the growing number of local conflicts will only intensify if there is an election-related crisis, which most analysts believe could happen.

“With that electoral gamble ahead, we may see lots of things both in the Kivus and elsewhere,” said Christoph Vogel, a researcher at the University of Zurich who specializes in Congo.

Nyunzu, a territory in the southeast, a bone-crushing day’s drive from Lake Tanganyika, used to be safe. Many of the people who live here are members of the Bambote, one of several forest-dwelling hunter-gatherer groups in Congo widely known as pygmies for their short stature. The term pygmy is often used in Congo and in other parts of Africa, although the forest dwellers tend to refer to themselves by the names of their groups.

“This is our first war,” Lumbu Baruani, a Bambote elder, said with a sad shake of his head. If it were up to him, he said, he would be in the forest, hunting antelope or catching grasshoppers for a snack.

According to several analysts, it says a lot about Congo’s state of affairs when a local war draws in members of a traditional hunter-gatherer group.

“Their existence is so dependent on cooperation,” said Barry S. Hewlett, an anthropologist who has spent decades researching hunter-gatherer communities in Central Africa. “Sharing and giving is essential to their way of life. If there is a conflict even in the camp, one of the individuals just moves.”

The war started, the Bambote say, in 2014. What set it off was an extramarital affair.

The elders in Nyunzu said a man from another ethnic group, the Luba, had impregnated a Bambote woman. This caused a scandal, not least because the woman was married, and inflamed tensions between the groups.

For generations, some men from the Luba group have chosen brides from communities such as the Bambote. Many elders complained that Luba men had not shown enough respect to the women’s parents.

Scientists believe that the few remaining hunter-gatherers living in Central Africa’s vast rain forest were its original inhabitants. Their adherence to tradition has kept them far behind other groups in education and wealth. At the same time, they have maintained an unusual degree of harmony among themselves and with their environment.

When the Bambote elders confronted the Luba adulterer, he did not apologize. Instead, the elders said, he killed the woman’s husband, setting off a wave of killings between the two communities.

Deeper problems were clearly driving the feud. Analysts point to long-simmering conflicts between the Bambote and the Luba over issues like land rights and labor practices. The local authorities in Nyunzu said it had been customary for the forest dwellers to work for the Luba as field hands for as little as 50 cents a day. Sometimes, they were even paid in salt or cassava scraps.

For the first time anyone could remember, the Bambote banded together in militias and began attacking Luba villages with torches and poisoned arrows. The Luba fought back.

A wave of anger and violence rippled across the green hills. This area is spectacularly beautiful, the Congo often imagined by outsiders — sharp hills, surging rivers, towering forests and lush paths that snake off the road into other worlds.

But soon it was a gruesome killing field.

Some victims’ genitals were cut off. Other victims were skinned. According to a Human Rights Watch report, one survivor heard members of a Luba militia cry out, “We will exterminate you all this year.”

Hundreds, if not thousands, of homes were burned. So were many schools. People fled in all directions.

Few, if any, guns were used — axes and arrows were the weapons on hand — but the government presence here is light to nonexistent. Hundreds were killed before the army arrived to intervene — which happens often in Congo.

The violence eventually cooled with the help of local officials, showing that even if Congo’s government is somewhat dysfunctional, it is better than nothing.

But thousands of people remain displaced. It is hard to imagine a more fitting symbol for this country than a cavernous abandoned cotton factory, built decades ago when there was working infrastructure, now full of seized-up machinery and hopeless people who have no other place to hide.

“We might be stuck here for years,” said Mr. Kalunga, the elder. “It’s a rotten life.”