Mayi-Mayi
Alliance pour la resistance democratique (ARD)
Mayi-Mayi is the main militia groups active in the Kivus region of Congo [Zaire]. The Mai Mai is a loose association of traditional Congolese local defense forces, which primarily fought Rwandan government forces and their Congolese allies. It is opposed to "Tutsi domination" and the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD), but is otherwise seemingly without any clear objective and frequently change allegiances. No homogeneity exists between the various Mayi-Mayi groups, and the names of various commanders such as Louetcha, Padiri and Dunia frequently come up. As of late 1999 these forces were being re-supplied all over North and South Kivu to attack the positions of the Rwandan army. The Alliance pour la resistance democratique (ARD), based in the Fizi region, is believed to be a Mayi-Mayi front.
In a report issued in March 2003, the NGO Commission de vulgarisation des droits de l'homme et de developpement (CVDHO - a human rights group from Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) singled out Kabale Makana a Nshimba and his followers as being ringleaders of rampant human rights abuses in the region. It appealed to the international community to establish a commission of inquiry into the alleged violations.
On 30 May 2003 CVDHO decried a fresh outbreak of fighting between Mayi-Mayi militiamen and police in the isolated Malemba Nkulu region in central Katanga. A report by CVDHO said fighting broke out on 13 May in Kayumba and Malemba Centre and resulted in the deaths of several civilians, including a local administrator, his secretary and the clerk of a local court. According to the NGO, the leader of the Mayi-Mayi faction, Kabale Makana a Nshimba, was also killed. The report said that police had fled Malemba Centre after militiamen seeking revenge attacked the police station, leaving the population at the mercy of "the new strongmen".
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