African Commission Condemns Displacement of Batwa Indigenous Community for National Park

– The African Union's commission on human rights has condemned the Congolese government for violating the rights of the Indigenous Batwa community, who were forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands nearly 50 years ago to facilitate the expansion of Kahuzi-Biega National Park. Established in 1970 by a Belgian conservationist, the park was built on land traditionally inhabited by the Batwa, who have historically lived as hunters and gatherers in the region. The 1975 expansion led to the displacement of approximately 13,000 Batwa, many of whom now reside in makeshift villages on the park's periphery, facing significant challenges in accessing land and healthcare. The commission has urged the Congolese government to allow the Batwa to return safely to their ancestral lands, recognize their citizenship, issue a public apology, and provide compensation for the injustices they have suffered. It criticized the “fortress conservation” approach, which prioritizes biodiversity protection at the expense of local communities, asserting that no Indigenous group should be evicted for conservation purposes in Africa. In 2022, the commission ruled in favor of the Batwa, but the announcement of this decision has been delayed due to translation errors. Meanwhile, reports indicate that when some Batwa attempted to return to their lands in 2018, they faced violent reprisals from park authorities and Congolese soldiers, leading to numerous human rights abuses, including deaths and sexual violence. Should the Congolese government fail to act on the commission's recommendations, rights groups may escalate the matter to the African Court on Human and People's Rights, which oversees human rights protection across the continent.