Understanding land dispossession through the militarisation of public authority under the state of siege in Goma, eastern DR Congo
Speakers: Benjamin Muhoza Kanze and Sam Kniknie
In May 2021, a state of siege was declared in two eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. President Tshisekedi framed the decision as an effort to restore security in this war torn region. This move led to an unusual situation where military and police officers replaced civil authorities, assuming key government roles and handling administrative and judicial tasks. However, their rule did not go uncontested. Amongst repression of freedom of speech and human rights abuses, the implication of military officers in urban land disputes and land evictions in the provincial capital Goma (North Kivu) led to extensive protests by civil society organizations and urban social movements. In this paper, we seek to understand how violence, dispossession and fragmented governance work together and how the militarization of political and administrative power allowed military officials to enforce the threat of state violence as a tool for accumulation by dispossession. Through several case studies of land evictions before and during the state of siege, we examine how violence—or the threat of it—facilitates accumulation by dispossession, and discuss the broader implications for capital accumulation, violence, and resistance in a context of fragile and fragmented state authority.