Popular Front for Justice in the Congo

The Popular Front for Justice in the Congo (French: Front populaire pour la justice au Congo, or FPJC) is an armed group operating in the south of Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where it has participated in the Ituri conflict. It formed in September 2008 from a splintering of the Front for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri (FRPI) and coalescing of other armed actors, including combatants from the Nationalist and Integrationist Front, who had resisted national disarmament campaigns.[1][4][5] The group has expressed opposition to a 2006 attempt to resolve the Ituri conflict, which granted amnesty to former participants in the conflict.[6] In 2011, the group was estimated to have no more than 100 members.[3] Whereas the FRPI was closely linked to the Ngiti ethnolinguistic group, the FPJC incorporated members of more varied ethnic backgrounds.[5]

Popular Front for Justice in the Congo
LeadersJean-Claude Baraka  (POW)[1]
Sharif Manda  (POW)
Cobra Matata   (POW)
David Mbadu[2]
Dates of operation2008–?
Active regionsIturi Province, D.R. Congo
Size<100 (2011)[3]
Opponents D.R. Congo Armed Forces
MONUSCO
Battles and warsIturi conflict

In October 2008, the FPJC clashed with Congolese government forces near Bunia in Ituri District, displacing thousands of local residents[6] before it was pushed back by government troops and MONUSCO, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the DRC. In March 2009, the FPJC launched attacks on villages southeast of Bunia, which were followed by counterattacks from the FRPI.[7] The UN Refugee Agency blamed fighting between the rebel groups for the displacement of more than 30,000 Congolese in Ituri.[8] Government forces launched an operation in 2010 to repel the FPJC and other rebel groups operating in Ituri and to relocate at-risk populations.[3] An early leader of the FPJC, Sharif Mandu, was arrested on September 2, 2010, in Arua, a town in western Uganda. Another FPJC leader, Jean-Claude Baraka, was arrested around the same time.[1] The arrest of Mandu was followed by a power struggle between his lieutenants. David Mbadu took control after his rival Cobra Matata, a former FPRI commander and briefly the FPJC leader, disappeared for a time.[2] Matata surrendered to military forces in November 2014 and was arrested in January 2015.[9]

In 2011, FPJC combatants stole national election materials from voter registration centers in Ituri, though did not otherwise block voter registration.[2] The UN reported that the group has engaged in abductions and forced recruitment of adults and children.[10] A resolution of the European Parliament in 2010 accused the FPJC, along with other armed groups active in eastern Congo, of "causing, either directly or indirectly, thousands of deaths, unbearable suffering, poverty and internally displaced people (IDPs) every month."[11] In 2011, custody of Sharif Manda was transferred to the International Criminal Court to have Manda testify as a witness in the case against Germain Katanga, the former FPRI leader accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.[12]

Notes
  1. "Who's who among armed groups in the east". IRIN. June 15, 2010. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  2. Congo: The Electoral Process Seen from the East (PDF) (Report). International Crisis Group. September 5, 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 20, 2016. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  3. "Militias and the displaced". IRIN. June 20, 2011. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  4. "DR Congo: Hoping for peace in Ituri". IRIN. February 10, 2009. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  5. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2008, Volume I. United States Department of State. December 2010. ISBN 9780160875151.
  6. "New rebels attack DR Congo town". BBC News. October 11, 2008. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  7. "DR Congo: more than 30,000 flee new attacks by splintered rebel factions". United Nations News Centre. April 7, 2009. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  8. David Nthengwe (April 7, 2009). Leo Dobbs (ed.). "30,000 Congolese flee to escape fresh conflict in Ituri district". United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  9. "RDC : Cobra Matata bientôt face au juge". BBC News. January 4, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  10. "2013 Trafficking in Persons Report". United States Department of State. 2013. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  11. "European Parliament resolution of 7 October 2010 on failures in protection of human rights and justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo". Resolution No. P7_TA(2010)0350 of October 7, 2010. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  12. "ICC transfers three detained witnesses to Dutch custody" (Press release). International Criminal Court. June 4, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
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