Congo Conflict
The evolving Landscape of Armed Groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(Click here to jump immediately to the mappings and genealogies of armed conflict in eastern Congo)
Two decades of armed conflict have created a complex topography in the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Current estimates by research institutions, multilateral and non-governmental organisations, and individual analysts indicate a myriad of over fifty armed groups of all sorts and shapes across the Kivu provinces, Maniema, Orientale, and Katanga. While some of them are not more than rag-tag groups of 10-20 ‘bandits’ or vigilante groups, others dispose over large-scale – either centralised or guerilla-styled – command structures, supply routes, and sophisticated tactics.
Almost all these groups have committed violent acts against either civilian population or opposed actors. Nonetheless, almost all these groups carry (at least to some extent) a political ideology and motivation. Whether self-defense, grievance over land and/or resources, political participation, or others and whether justified or not, is subject to respective debate.
The mapping below provides basic information on the current topography of these armed groups operating in the DRC. It maps a larger part of these groups, including those most relevant for the politico-military landscape of eastern DRC in terms of strength and/or impact on ongoing politico-military developments in the country.
The background map used for this mapping exercise is a combination of RGC’s and UNDP’s provincial maps for North and South Kivu. All data used has been compiled by a wide range of complementary sources amended by scrutiny of several individual researchers to whom I am deeply grateful while maintaining full anonymity (while errors remain mine). Further sources, where open to disclosure, are indicated on the maps for transparency reasons.
The maps below aim at tentatively situating many of the key armed groups in North and South Kivu at various points of time (in a roughly trimestrial interval). As this is work in progress, the exact proportions may not always exactly display the real situation. Note that the marked areas are approximate zones of influence and not clearly demarcated territories since it is impossible, even for a concrete point in time, to exactly indicate the locations. For most groups, the actual territory they permanently control is likely to be smaller.
Please also note that by producing this map we do not – by any means – endorse dominant narratives of state failure or similar. Rather this map is supposed to serve as a resource to underpin the complex intricacies of state and non-state governance, and the arena in which statehood is negotiated among a variety of actors claiming authority in eastern Congo. This is work in progress and will always remain such. It is neither fully exhaustive nor exact.
suluhu.org 
Nous intervenons d’une manière transversale les problèmes des conflits au sein des communautés dans région. Prière également de nous programmer dans toutes less interventions liées au conflits diverses
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This is great, thanks so much for this!
This is great work and good sound analysis