Tens of thousands of refugees anddisplaced people are starting to return to their homes in the two territories of the Democratic Republic of Congo previously occupied by the M23 rebels.

But for many more Congolese uprooted by conflict, a homecoming is still a distant prospect. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on November 6 a “progressive return or a wish to return” among internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Nyiragongo and Rutshuru territories.

The report suggested that around 40,000 IDPs, and 10,000 DRC refugees in Uganda, could soon return to their homes in the two territories. But the other four territories in North Kivu are still prey to armed groups, and are still seeing population displacements, OCHA said.

Official figures in August suggested there were some 135,000 IDPs from Rutshuru and Nyiragongo, out of just over one million in the whole province, and some two and a half million in the country.

Privately, some NGOs contest those figures, which they say are exaggerated. The real figure is likely to rise, however, at least temporarily, as the Congolese army and the UN mission in Congo (Monusco) attempt to neutralise other “negative forces.”

The day before the M23’s last bastion fell to the Congolese army, refugees a few kilometres away in Uganda spoke of the difficulties that may still confront them.

Innocent Nyonzima, a young man from Rutshuru said: “Many of us have been refugees since 2007… It will be difficult for families to regain their rights and their land or even to recognise their homes,” he said. “They may find they have lost everything.”

Gabriel Hanyurwa, a displaced farmer and teacher living in a camp outside Goma, said he could go back to his village in Rutshuru but he would not sleep easily.

“If I go back there my elder brother could have me killed. Families are quarrelling over their fields and inheritances.”

He said it was common for whole villages to be divided against each other by these kinds of disputes. Similar fears are shared by many in eastern DRC, says Christophe Beau, protection adviser for the UN system in Goma.

“Even when a zone has been made secure,” he said, “people always fear to return to it because they could still be threatened by people who were in the armed groups.”

It seems likely these fears will be strongest in areas where armed groups have created or exacerbated inter- or intra-community tensions over land, power and resources.

The researcher Severine Autesserre, in her 2010 study “The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding,” writes that land disputes have often been a cause of tension for displaced people trying to return to their villages in eastern DRC.

“Returnees often find their land occupied by new groups, usually of a different ethnic origin. This practice of usurpation occurred in similar ways throughout eastern Congo.”

Detailed reports compiled by the RRMP (Rapid Response to Movements of Population), a joint UN/NGO initiative in eastern DRC, give an idea of where these kinds of tensions are most serious.

Out of 40 localities assessed, nine were found to feature land and community conflicts. This may understate the scale of the problem for IDPs and returnees in general.

The RRMP focuses on population movements to new sites, and probably under-reports movements to established camps, which are mainly sited near areaswith the worst community and land conflicts.

Support armed groups

UNHCR’s Beau argues that to overcome IDP fears of returning home, “first of all it’s important to support armed group members’ return to civilian life and to encourage their social integration.

“We need more programmes to achieve this in North Kivu.”

Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator in North Kivu, Tariq Riebl, agreed. He said “the Congolese government needs to rapidly adopt a strong and comprehensive disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme,” which regional governments and international partners should support.

Oxfam is also calling for a political process, alongside any military action, “that addresses deep-seated issues including land, livelihoods, control of resources and representation of all communities” and includes local-level dialogue.