Heavy clashes have erupted in eastern Congo between government forces and a militia led by a convicted war criminal, leaving civilians dead. The fighting pits the Congolese army against the Convention for the Popular Revolution (CPR), founded by Thomas Lubanga, once jailed by the International Criminal Court for recruiting child soldiers. Lubanga, an Ituri native, announced his movement earlier this year to oust the regional government, adding to the volatility of a region already torn by M23 rebel advances.
The army accused CPR fighters of launching several assaults north of Bunia, claiming twelve militants were killed in operations spanning two locations. A CPR commander, speaking anonymously, confirmed the clashes but reported only one casualty on their side, disputing the army’s account.
Civil society activist Dieudonne Losa said nineteen civilians, including thirteen elderly women and four young girls, have been killed during the recent escalation. “What is happening north of Bunia is an unacceptable situation,” Losa told Reuters, decrying the violence’s toll on vulnerable communities.
Lubanga’s history is steeped in conflict. Convicted in 2012, he served eight years before being freed in 2020 and controversially appointed to a peace task force. In 2022, he was kidnapped by rebels, an incident he blamed on government complicity, and later relocated to Uganda, where his political ambitions persisted.
U.N. experts have accused him of mobilising fighters to aid local militias and the Rwanda-backed M23, though his current command strength remains uncertain. The renewed violence underscores the fragility of eastern Congo’s peace efforts, where old warlords, new militias, and entrenched rebels intertwine in a cycle of bloodshed.