Child rights defender Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba killed in DRC
On 12 June 2017, Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba was killed by armed individuals suspected of belonging to national armed forces stationed in Beni, in North Kivu province.
Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba was the Director of the Centre for Unaccompanied Rescued Children And Orphans - Centre d’Encadrement d’Enfants Rescapés non Accompagnés et Orphelins (CERAO), an organisation started in 1991, where he worked on projects focusing on the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers and managed a shelter for ex-child soldiers.
On 12 June 2017, Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba was killed by armed individuals suspected of belonging to national armed forces stationed in Beni, in North Kivu province.
Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba was the Director of the Centre for Unaccompanied Rescued Children And Orphans - Centre d’Encadrement d’Enfants Rescapés non Accompagnés et Orphelins (CERAO), an organisation started in 1991, where he worked on projects focusing on the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers and managed a shelter for ex-child soldiers.
On 27 February 2017, Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba had been summoned by the Military Prosecutor’s Office in Beni and was detained for alleged collaboration with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan rebel group operating in certain parts of Eastern DR Congo. It is believed that the suspicion was as a result of the human rights defender’s work with child soldiers. On 10 June 2017, while Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba was detained at Beni prison, the prison was attacked by ADF rebels and many of the detainees, including Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba, left the prison. On 12 June 2017, he contacted the Military Prosecutor’s Office to notify them of his whereabouts and he was told to return to the prison where the military was in the process of recapturing escaped detainees. On his way to the prison, he was intercepted by armed individuals believed to be members of the military. They reportedly strangled him to death and dumped his body on the side of the road.
Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the killing of Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba and regrets that his murder is part of a larger pattern of targeting human rights defenders in the DRC and particularly in North Kivu, including the 2016 killings of Marcel Tengeneza in Kirumba and Father Vincent Machozi in Butembo.
Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in DRC to:
1. Strongly and immediately condemn the killing of Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba;
2. Carry out an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into the killing of Alphonse Luanda Kalyamba, with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards;
3. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in DRC are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions.
