DR Congo imposes military rule in regions under 'state of siege'

The Democratic Republic of Congo's presidency on Monday ordered military and police officers to take over civil authorities in two regions that have been declared under a "state of siege".
North-Kivu
and Ituri -- both eastern provinces where dozens of armed groups operate and
civilians have been subject to horrifying massacres -- were declared under
siege on Friday.
Under
the DRC's constitution, the president can declare a state of either siege or
emergency "if severe circumstances immediately threaten the independence
or integrity of the national territory, or if they interrupt the regular
functioning of institutions".
In
an address broadcast on public television on Monday, President Felix Tshisekedi
said he had heard "the cries of distress of our population, and felt the
pain that our mothers, sisters and daughters are suffering in these provinces
ravaged by barbarity".
His
spokesman Tharsice Kasongo Mwema confirmed that the two provinces would be
declared under siege for 30 days starting on Thursday, May 6.
"To respond to the situation during
the state of siege, the provincial governments of Ituri and North Kivu, and the
entities of these provinces, will be replaced by offices of the armed forces of
the DRC or the national police," he said.
"The action of the civil jurisdictions
will be substituted by those of military jurisdictions" until "the
reestablishment of the peace", he added.
The
announcement of a state of siege has been welcomed by North-Kivu governor Carly
Kasivita, who said he had repeatedly urged a "national mobilisation"
to deal with attacks in the province's Beni region.
However,
some observers have expressed alarm at the idea of replacing civil authorities
with military ones, warning it could lead to abuses of power.
Rocked
by violence
Mineral-rich
North and South-Kivu, which lie along the DRC's eastern borders with Uganda,
Rwanda and Burundi, descended into violence during the country's two wars
between 1996 and 2003, and have never regained stability.
Ituri,
further to the north, has also been rocked by violence since late 2017 after 15
years of relative calm.
The
Kivu Security Tracker, a monitoring group, estimates that 122 different armed
groups of varying sizes are active in the eastern DRC.
The
Allied Democratic Forces, a group of Ugandan Islamist fighters based in eastern
DRC since 1995, are blamed for many of the massacres.
The ADF -- which the US brands a "terrorist" organisation" affiliated to Islamic State group -- have been accused of murdering more than 1,000 civilians since November 2019 in Beni alone.