Effacer le tableau (French pronunciation: [efɑse lə tablo], literally "erase the board" or "clean the slate") was the operational name given to the genocide of the Bambuti pygmies by rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).[1]
| Effacer le tableau | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Second Congo War and Violence against pygmies | |
_-_Ituri.svg) Map of Ituri Province within the DRC. | |
| Location | Mambasa and the Ituri rainforest, Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Date | October 2002 to January 2003 |
Attack type | Genocidal massacre, Ethnic cleansing, cannibalism, war rape[1] |
| Deaths | 60,000[1][2] to 70,000[2] (40% of the Eastern Congo's Pygmy population killed)[N 1] |
| Victims | Bambuti pygmies |
| Perpetrators | Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (Jean-Pierre Bemba) |
| Motive | Territorial conquest of the North Kivu province of the DRC |
Background
In 2002, Mambasa was a town of about "20,000 to 25,000 inhabitants."[3] A Congolese town near the borders of Uganda and South Sudan, it lies in the eastern part of Ituri, which Human Rights Watch described in 2003 as "the bloodiest corner" of the DRC.[4]
The extermination was carried out by soldiers from the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), who became known to locals as les effaceurs ("the erasers"), and troops from the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD-N).[5]
Massacre
The primary objective of Effacer le tableau was the territorial conquest of the North Kivu province of the DRC and ethnic cleansing of Pygmies from the Congo's eastern region whose population numbered 90,000 by 2002.[1] The Bambuti were targeted specifically as the rebels considered them "subhuman", and it was believed by the rebels that the flesh of the Bambuti held "magical powers". There were also reports of cannibalism being widespread.[6] It is estimated 60,000 to 70,000 Pygmy were killed in the campaign,[2] and over 100,000 more were displaced.[7]
Aftermath
In March 2016, the International Criminal Court found Jean-Pierre Bemba guilty of human rights violations in the Central African Republic. Bemba was the vice president of the DRC, and leader of the MLC during the year-long extermination campaign,[8] but was fully acquitted by the ICC's appeal court in June 2018.[9]