Between ‘justice’ and ‘Injustice’: justice populaire in eastern DR Congo

Extra-legal ‘popular’ violence, whereby citizens kill other citizens ‘in the name of justice’, has occurred all over the world, at different times and in different places. However, there is a much higher incidence of such practices in some contexts than in others. The present-day eastern DR Congo is one of those contexts. Whether through violent mobs, or through ‘guns for hire’, those who are perceived to be ‘harming the community’ are sometimes killed without judicial process, but in ‘the name of justice’. How can we explain these violent practices? What do they tell us about the state of the justice and security apparatus in the eastern DR Congo? And what could be done to reduce the incidence of these irregular acts?