Title: Operation Likofi
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.
Subjects: Organized crime, Disappeared persons, Police crackdowns, Human rights, Police brutality
Places: Kinshasa, Congo (Democratic Republic)