Operation Likofi
Subtitle: police killings and enforced disappearances in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
By: [researched and written by Ida Sawyer; writing assistance by Lianna Merner]
Contributors: Merner, Lianna, author, editor; Human Rights Watch (Organization)
Publisher: Human Rights Watch
Published: 2014
Place of publication: New York]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 57
ISBN-13: 9781623132040
Copyright date: 2014
Subjects: Organized crime; Disappeared persons; Police crackdowns; Human rights; Police brutality
Other titles: Democratic Republic of Congo :
Description: On November 15, 2013, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo launched "Operation Likofi," a police operation in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, aimed at ending crime by members of organized criminal gangs known as "kaluna." Gen. Célestin Kanyama, currently the police commissioner for all of Kinshasa, was the primary commander of the operation. Over the course of three months, police officers who participated in the operation extrajudicially executed at least 51 black young men and teenage boys and forcibly disappeared 33 others. In raids across the city, police in uniform, often with black masks covering their faces, and with no arrest warrants, dragged suspected kuluna at gunpoint out of their homes at night. In many cases, the police shot and killed the unarmed youth outside their homes, while others were apprehended and executed in the open markets where they slept or worked or in nearby fields or empty lots. Many others were taken to unknown locations and forcibly disappeared. Police warned family members and witnesses not to speak out about what happened, denied them access to their relatives' bodies and prevented them from holding funerals. Congolese journalists were threatened when they attempted to document or broadcast information about Operation Likofi killings. Operation Likofi: Police Killings and Enforced Disappearances in Kinshasa is based on interviews conducted in Kinshasa with over 100 witnesses to abuses, family members of victims, police officers who participated in Operation Likofi, government officials, and others. Human Rights Watch calls on the Congolese government to hold those responsible for these abuses to account. General Kanyama should be suspended immediately pending a judicial investigation. The government should also provide information to family members on the fate or whereabouts of the victims. -- back cover.
Notes: "November 2014"

Human Rights Watch report.

"This report was researched and written by Ida Sawyer, senior researcher in the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. Congolese colleagues provided significant research support, but their names are withheld for security reasons. Africa Division senior associate Lianna Merner also provided writing assistance. ... Lianna Merner also provided editing and production assistance..." -- page 57.

Includes bibliographical references.

Also available online.
Table of contents: title: Summary; title: Recommendations: To Congo's government ; To Congo's national assembly ; To Congo's international donors and the United Nations.; title: I. Background: "Kuluna" ; Operation Likofi.; title: II. Police abuses during Operation Likofi: Extrajudicial executions of suspected Kuluna ; Enforced disappearances of suspected Kuluna.; title: III. Government response to Operation Likofi abuses: Police reform in Congo ; International legal obligations.; title: IV. Criticism of Operation Likofi; title: V. Conclusion; title: Acknowledgments.