UPC in Ituri: The external militarization of local politics in north-eastern Congo (Usalama Project)

This report examines the convergence of factors that helped create and then broke apart the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC, Union of Congolese Patriots), one of Ituri’s most powerful armed groups. Created in the context of Ugandan occupation, which led to an increased militarization of politics, the UPC represented a local attempt to regain political and military control over the district. The movement was largely driven by elite interests from within the Hema community, the socio-economically dominant ethnic group in Ituri, and attracted external support first from Uganda, then from Rwanda.

The initial impetus behind the UPC was a bloody land conflict that erupted in 1999, the result of long-standing tensions born out of a history of economic and political inequality between landowning Hema and Lendu farmer communities. In July 2000, Hema officers of the armed group that controlled Ituri, the Rassemblement congolais pour la démocratie–Kisangani/Mouvement de libération (RCD-K/ML, Congolese Rally for Democracy–Kisangani/Liberation Movement), mutinied in protest against what they saw as a pro-Lendu stance by their political leadership. Thomas Lubanga, who began his political career in an opposition party that advocated non-violent resistance, quickly positioned himself as a spokesman of the mutineers and then initiated the creation of the UPC in September 2000. In the following two years, Lubanga and his local allies were able to exploit tensions between the RCD-K/ML, Uganda, and Rwanda, transforming the UPC into a fully-fledged rebellion in August 2002 and taking control of Bunia, Ituri’s district capital.

Regional dynamics quickly overshadowed the UPC’s local origins, initially strengthening the movement but subsequently destroying it almost entirely. At the end of 2002, Uganda’s proxy war with Rwanda intensified as Kampala moved closer politically to the Kinshasa government; together, the countries managed to split the UPC into three groups and triggered a battle over the control of Bunia. In May 2003, when the UPC—emboldened by Uganda’s withdrawal—retook Bunia with Rwandan support in a battle that left hundreds of civilians dead and UN peacekeepers caught in the middle, the UN Security Council authorized a multinational intervention force, led by the French army.

This military intervention marked the beginning of a protracted and fitful period of stabilization. Lubanga departed for Kinshasa to negotiate the UPC’s political future but was eventually arrested in March 2005 and held in connection with the killings of nine Bangladeshi UN personnel. A year later, he was transferred to the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face trial in The Hague. Meanwhile, Kinshasa helped orchestrate another split in the UPC and, together with UN peacekeepers, launched robust operations against remaining militias, effectively dismantling the UPC’s military wing.