Situation Report: Update on the DRC Transition: The Case of the Kivu Provinces, Hans Romkema

Over the past two years the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has seen the transition from a situation of all-out war, through political and security deadlock and internationally sponsored negotiations, to a transitional period that should lead the country to its first democratic elections. The population of the DRC, however, particularly in the Kivu provinces, has benefited only to a very limited extent from the political settlement negotiated in South Africa.

The population is still subject to sustained, albeit reduced, violence in many of the territories of the North and South Kivu provinces. OCHA (the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs) reported in April 2004 that in these two provinces alone there are still over 1.2 million internally displaced persons. Moreover, there are still thousands of refugees dispersed in the countries neighbouring the DRC, afraid to return home and lacking assistance to facilitate their repatriation and reintegration.