On June 1, a coalition of 262 Congolese and 9 international NGOs, including the Enough Project, called on the U.N. Human Rights Council to urgently establish a commission of inquiry into the situation in the central Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 35th session of the Human Rights Council began yesterday in Geneva.Between 500 and 1,000 people have been killed in the Kasai region since large-scale violence between the Congolese army and the Kamuina Nsapu movement broke out in August 2016, according to the United Nations.
- Click here to read the letter.
- Click here to see the full list of signatories.
On June 5, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley also called for the United Nations to investigate the deaths of U.N. employees and human rights violations in Congo. Two U.N. Group of Experts on Congo members, Zaida Catalán and Michael Sharp, were killed in March 2017, while investigating widespread human rights abuses in the Kasai region.
Photo credit: Mona M. Lunds