Congolese Genocide Day
🇨🇩 Congo - Kinshasa
- Public Holiday
- Countrywide
- Fixed date
Overview
Congolese Genocide Day is observed each August 2 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to remember the millions of civilians killed during more than two decades of armed conflict, particularly in the country's eastern provinces. The date marks the anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Congo War in 1998, one of the deadliest conflicts in modern African history.
What It Is
As a public holiday, government offices and many businesses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo close for the day. National ceremonies and commemorations are held to honor victims of the conflicts that have affected the eastern provinces since the 1990s, including moments of remembrance for civilians killed in massacres, displacement, and violence linked to the wars. Congolese officials have also used the day to call for greater international recognition of the scale of civilian deaths in the country's conflicts, particularly those involving foreign-backed armed groups in the east.
Why It Matters
The observance responds to decades of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's eastern provinces, beginning with the First and Second Congo Wars of the 1990s and continuing through later conflicts involving multiple domestic and foreign-backed armed groups. Humanitarian researchers have estimated that several million Congolese died as a result of the fighting and its indirect effects, such as disease and displacement, making it among the deadliest series of conflicts since the Second World War. Congolese leaders and civil society groups have pressed for these killings to be formally recognized internationally as genocide.
Countries Celebrating
1 country
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