M23 sends its torture mayor to the naughty step
Mayor Julien Katembo said a bus driver was lashed and jailed for skipping M23’s mandatory Saturday sanitation work. Katembo has since been suspended for what's been described as a "serious breach".
Semeni Kitoko in Goma
Leaders of M23 – the March 23 Movement paramilitary group occupying large parts of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – have suspended their mayor of Goma, Julien Katembo, for 15 days after he ordered troops to beat civilians. A video emerged last Saturday of men in military uniforms beating two men with sticks for allegedly absconding from mandatory community service.
The mayor told a press conference that day that the victims, a bus driver and his conductor, had skipped salongo – the mandatory sanitation work that M23 introduced to Goma – and attempted to flee when accosted. A similar exercise called umuganda happens in Rwanda every last Saturday of the month. In Goma, M23 authorities mandated it for every Saturday morning.
“When we caught [the driver], we punished him with 10 lashes, and he will spend two days in jail without paying any fines,” Katembo told the press. However, M23’s deputy governor of North Kivu, Willy Manzi Ngarambe, suspended the mayor, describing his actions as a “serious breach” of M23’s values and code of conduct.
Critics of the occupation were unimpressed. “I think it’s a bitter mockery,” said Aimable Gafurura, a human rights activist from Goma living in exile, arguing that the 15-day suspension is a slap on the wrist given the mayor’s actions.
Human rights activists have documented numerous cases of beatings and torture in the city by the M23 officials who control the region.
One resident, Paul* told The Continent his brother Simba had been severely whipped by M23 men while they detained him in a dungeon. “He was released in critical condition and hospitalised. He died a few days later.”
Disgusted to see what used to be indigenous rituals and sacred moments with the land be used to further oppress the Congolese people. Kagame used it as well to continue oppressing Hutus, it was altered during colonial times to impose economic disparity and free labour. Rwanda needs to be called out for its disgusting role as a puppet for imperialism.