In Democratic Republic of the Congo, fear of new ethnic conflict is tangible

Rebels led by a warlord called the Terminator are closing on strategic Kitchanga, where people crave peace
People sheltering in a refugee camp at Mugunga near Goma after rebels and the army clashed
Growing numbers of people are sheltering in a refugee camp at Mugunga near Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, after clashes between rebels and the army. Photograph: Junior D Hannah/AFP/Getty Images

The road south from Kitchanga snakes through some stunning landscape. Over towering hills and atop narrow cliffs with vertiginous drops on either side, lush and green, villages perch precipitously on the sides of steep embankments.

But don't be fooled by the beauty. This hinterland in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has witnessed grotesque and prolific bloodletting in the past 20 years. People here have made efforts to heal the scars of the brutal ethnicity-based wars of the mid-1990s, but they now fear that a new conflict will open deadly divisions between communities once again.

The fear is tangible in Kitchanga, a strategic town in North Kivu province that was at the centre of the last bloody revolt five years ago. It is tangible too in Mugunga, a longstanding refugee camp that has begun to fill up again in the past two months, as an April rebellion by mutinous Congolese army soldiers sent more than 100,000 people fleeing their homes.

"I came here two months ago after the rebels and army soldiers began fighting in my town," says Kabua Kahindo, from Kitchanga, who stood holding her baby in one of the large communal tents in Mugunga. "I came with three of my children. We had to walk for three days to reach here. I don't know where my husband and my other child are, we lost them in the confusion as we fled."

The region around Kitchanga was the stronghold of the Tutsi-led rebellion begun in 2007 by Laurent Nkunda, a former Congolese army general. Peace didn't come until two years later, when the DRC and Rwanda agreed to arrest Nkunda and integrate his fighters – known as the Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) – into the Congolese army.

The highest-ranked soldier was a general known chillingly as Bosco "The Terminator" Ntaganda, a notorious warlord who fought in Rwanda during its darkest hour in 1994, and is now wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes committed in 2002 and 2003 during the second Congo war.

It is those former CNDP fighters, led by Ntaganda and now operating under the name M23, who mutinied in April, decrying what they see as a failure to fully implement the terms of the 2009 peace accords. In particular, they are incensed at attempts by President Joseph Kabila to redeploy them out of North and South Kivu, which they have come to dominate as their own personal fiefdom. As for Ntaganda, his motive is more straightforward, driven back into rebellion by his fear of arrest by the court.

Many believe the rebels have their sights set on regaining control of Kitchanga in particular, where the hilltops are easily defended and rebel leaders own plenty of land and cows.

"Kitchanga was always considered the CNDP's capital in the last rebellion, and they will want to come back," says Edmond Luanda, a local government administrator in the town. "When the mutiny happened in April, the army soldiers here, who were ex-CNDP, followed Ntaganda and rebelled as well. The new regiment here also has many ex-CNDP soldiers, so people are nervous. They are scared that M23 could arrive at any time."

Kitchanga, Dem Rep Congo

On the surface, life in Kitchanga seems normal. At a bustling market, vendors sell bright orange palm oil and multicoloured beans to locals and displaced people issued with World Food Programme vouchers. However, the atmosphere in the town is palpably tense when conversation turns to the conflict. Marie Bunyeri glances away when asked about security, looking around as she quietly says, "the government protects us well". No one in Kitchanga publicly criticises the army, despite the defections here two months ago.

Relations between the various communities that inhabit this large trading town have been strained by the former CNDP fighters' association with the Tutsi community. Luanda insists there is "no mistrust between the people here", but in the next breath says "many Tutsis have left Kitchanga even though there is no fighting here now. When Tutsis leave it's a bad sign."

The implication is that the Tutsi residents of Kitchanga are in touch with the rebels, who are currently in the neighbouring Rutshuru territory, and have been warned of an impending attack. The CNDP was always seen as the protector of Tutsi interests in eastern DRC, and M23 are considered by many to have assumed that mantle. In Mugunga camp, however, Tutsis from Kitchanga deny that this is the case, and fear for the future if the rhetoric around the conflict begins to focus on ethnicity.

"We haven't been in touch with M23," says Furaha Mugabo, a Tutsi woman who fled Kitchanga to Mugunga. "We did hear that M23 said the Congolese army were going to attack Tutsis, which was why many Tutsis left. We fear the war, and above all we are scared that other communities might start to blame the Tutsis for these problems. We only want peace, and to be able to return to our homes and our fields."

That return seems unlikely to come soon. Kahindo, a Hutu, agrees with Mugabo that all she wants is to be able to go back to Kitchanga, but says she is unwilling to leave Mugunga until she is sure that there is peace in her home town. "I will not return yet," she says. "I don't have confidence in the Congolese army to protect us. There are many rebels, and they are very strong."

For now, the M23 fighters are engaged in running battles in a small patch of land in the rolling hills near the convergence of the Congolese, Ugandan and Rwandan borders. As in Kitchanga, there are signs of a grisly history being repeated here. During the first CNDP insurgency five years ago, the rebels quickly gained control of the strategically vital town of Bunagana, on the Ugandan border. Recent advances have brought M23 close to cutting off the road to Bunagana, and residents in the town echo Mugabo's pleas for peace.

"We want to live in peace," says a young man in Bunagana, who did not want to give his name. As he spoke, the sound of bullets and mortar fire echoed around the hills just a few miles away. "You can see how we have to live now – under threat of being invaded at any moment. We would even be happy to live with [the rebels] if they wanted peace; we are just tired of war. How can you live if you have to keep fleeing your home?"

Near the frontline, the Congolese army fires enormous anti-aircraft guns towards the rebel positions in the hills, as soldiers scurry from the front carrying wounded comrades. The heat is intense and the soldiers seem exhausted, asking for cigarettes and biscuits. The M23 positions are in two hills and some villages in the plains near the Rwandan border, and suggestions of Rwandan support for their cause may explain how they continue to make advances against the massed ranks of the Congolese army.

The Congolese government and Human Rights Watch enraged Rwanda by arguing that the DRC's neighbour is aiding the insurgents. As the diplomatic bickering continues between Kinshasa and Kigali, the Congolese people remain quite literally caught in the crossfire of this conflict and want only for it to finish.

"Whether it's by force or through negotiation, we want the fighting to stop," says the exasperated young man in Bunagana. "It's a sad, bad situation, and I don't know how or when it will end."

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