Hema (ethnicity)
The Hema (also Bahima or Hima ) are an ethnic group related to the Tutsi with 150,000 to 200,000 members. The Hema are located in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Ituri province and in the area of the Great Lakes of Africa, especially in southwest Uganda , in Rwanda , in southern Burundi , and in southern and western Tanzania . In Ituri they are partly politically and militarily organized in the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) under the charismatic Thomas Lubanga , which - founded as a self-defense organization - is now held responsible for many acts of terrorism.
history
The Hema immigrated from the north perhaps in the 14th century and live mainly semi-nomadic from cattle breeding, but also from agriculture. Some investigations also integrate them directly into the Tutsi , from whose persecution some Hema groups have also suffered. In Uganda they make up 10 percent of the population.
present
The nomadic cattle herders Hema fought from 1998 to 2003 against the sedentary farmers of the Lendu people .
According to media reports , thousands of people were on the run in the Ituri area, the border area with Rwanda and Uganda . The reason for the fighting between the two ethnic groups are disputes over land ownership, especially in relation to new resource discoveries in the Republic of the Congo. The gold and oil discoveries in particular have played a decisive role in this in recent years.
Freeriders , a paramilitary formation made up of volunteers from the Hema ethnic group, fought together with the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), with the Unity, Security and Integrity Party of the Congo (PUSIC) and also with paramilitaries of the Congolese People's Party (FAPC) against the traditionally hostile ethnic group of the Lendu. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda began peace negotiations on February 17th, which include the withdrawal of Ugandan troops and the establishment of the IPC and a pacification commission. The Hema troops are non-combatants and are therefore not subject to international humanitarian law .
The fighting in the region also poses a humanitarian problem, as child soldiers are repeatedly forcibly recruited by the paramilitaries .
Against this background, the United Nations sent a team to monitor the country in 1999. The UN mission MONUC has been stationed in the crisis region since then. Since this observation team was unable to mediate the fighting, the UN Security Council decided that an international peacekeeping force, led by the French military, should be deployed.
Web links
- Orville Boyd Jenkins: The Hima People of Eastern Africa ( en )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Daily newspaper, September 3, 2008
- ↑ At least 30 dead in ethnic violence in northeast Congo . Reuters. 5th February 2018.