Roger Lumbala Tshitenga

Roger Lumbala Tshitenga is a Congolese national and former leader of the non-state armed group the Congolese Rally for National Democracy (RCD-N). The armed group operated in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from 2000 to 2003. Lumbala also held the post of Minister of Commerce of the Congolese government between 2003 and 2005.

In November 2023, Lumbala, who has been in pre-trial detention in France since his arrest in 2020 in Paris, was indicted of complicity in crimes against humanity committed in the DRC, including murder, torture, rape, pillage and enslavement, inclusive of sexual slavery, as well as conspiring to commit crimes against humanity.  The RCD-N and its allies allegedly committed these atrocities during a military operation called “Erasing the Board” in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. Lumbala allegedly ordered and supplied the RCD-N troops to violently attack the civilian population as part of the operation’s aim to take control of resource-rich areas in the eastern part of the DRC.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

In the context of the Second Congo War (1998-2003), in the last months of 2002, the RCD-N and allied armed groups carried out a campaign of systematic attacks against the civilian population residing in the two provinces of Ituri and North Kivu. The operation was designed to grant the RCD-N control of areas held by the rival group Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement (RCD-ML), particularly the town of Mambasa and the resource-rich region of Beni-Butembo. The RCD-N named the operation “Erasing the Board” because the modus operandi of its troops was to attack the civilian population and destroy everything of value to them. In October 2002 alone, the UN reported a total of 173 killings in just 17 days. Additional documented incidents include the widespread rape of women and girls, dozens of cases of cruel and inhuman treatment, forced labor and enforced disappearances, and the systematic looting of social structures in the area.