Central Africa on verge of huge conflict

UN human rights chief Louise Arbour warned yesterday that unpunished human rights violations — including “pandemic” sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo — are keeping central Africa on the brink of another major conflict.

She told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that the DRC and Great Lakes region would remain exposed to a return to large-scale violence so long as impunity is the norm.

“The periodic cycles of extreme violence that these countries have undergone cannot be broken unless governments demonstrate that perpetrators of human rights violations will be held accountable,” she told the 47-nation council.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, who returned from a mission to DRC, Burundi and Rwanda on May 25, said the scale of “grave” human rights challenges was “daunting”.

“Discrimination, and a dearth of enjoyment of economic and social rights, affect much of the region,” she said. “I was alarmed by the scale of sexual violence in the region, which is of pandemic proportions in the DRC.

“I believe that there is significant potential for sustainable peace and development in the region.

“But the risk of further outbreaks of large-scale violence and return to conflict — with inevitably ensuing human rights abuses — cannot be discounted, particularly in the DRC.”