| Displaced from their lands in the eastern area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the 20th Century, with neither consultation nor compensation, the Batwa People (formerly known as Pygmies) are struggling to return to their forest home in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park (PNKB). But the Park Authorities are attacking them once again.
In January 2024, Park Authority guards, accompanied by Congolese Military, have once again raided a number of Batwa Communities, displacing people and burning their homes. The ongoing violence has led the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights to direct a letter to the country’s government, under recently reelected President Félix Tshisekedi, calling for an end to the violence and the eviction of Indigenous Peoples from the Park.
Park authorities have accused the Batwa of being members of the M23, a Tutsi insurgent group fighting the government of the DRC, mainly in the country’s northern Kivu Province. The Batwa firmly reject the accusation, and have declared their intention to continue the fight to return to their lands by all non-violent means possible.
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