Kasa\u00ef was a relatively stable region in the Democratic Republic of Congo - a country struggling with multiple conflicts \u2013 until 2016 when violence erupted out of a locally rooted conflict. A violent dispute tore apart communities in the Kasa\u00ef region, turning the area into the epicenter of an intercommunal conflict that has engulfed the entire region and spread to neighboring Lomami and Sankuru provinces.<\/p>\n
Kasa\u00ef is one of the poorest regions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is usually far off the radar of politicians and decision makers in the distant capital Kinshasa. This disconnection has failed to nurture the tradition of social integration and made it difficult for the local populations to see what connects them to each other. As a result, violence broke out in August 2016, pitting local militants against national government forces. Some 5,000 people were killed by the brutal war that raged for more than two years and 1.4 million others were displaced, according to United Nations figures.<\/p>\n
Since then, people have struggled to recover from the two years of intense violent conflict as ethnic tensions simmer. The recent influx of over 300,000 people into Kasa\u00ef, mainly migrant workers and refugees forced to return home from Angola, is posing a threat of resurgence of violence as the region is still extremely fragile following previous conflicts. This large influx of returnees in Kasa\u00ef has stretched the already inadequate resources and generated tensions between returnees and host communities, leading to skirmishes in some villages over limited food resources.<\/p>\n
There is a danger that inter-communal tensions may resurface. In the heat of these rising conflicts, Interpeace has partnered with the Norwegian Refugee Council<\/a> (NRC) and Fondation Hirondelle<\/a> to restore trust among the Kasa\u00ef communities and reconcile them with DRC authorities.<\/p>\n\n\t\t