Despite the official end of war, the Democratic Republic of
Congo continues to be plagued by violence, with civilians
falling victim to widespread killings, rape forced displacement
and other crimes. ICTJ provides technical assistance to
government and civil society institutions in the DRC to advance
an informed national debate on transitional justice and to
implement specific accountability initiatives. Laurent Kabila’s
1996–1997 campaign to depose the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko set
off a violent civil war and the extended presence in eastern
Congo by Rwandan and Ugandan armies. The conflict involved to
varying degrees over a dozen African countries. While the
conflict officially ended with a peace agreement in 2002, human
rights violations and international crimes continue at very high
levels in complex conflicts in the country’s east. The
successive wars in the DRC have been described as the deadliest
since World War II. An estimated 5.4 million people died from
war-related causes between August 1998 and Ap