ABSTRACT
Violence against civilians is a common feature in the context of armed conflict, despite the principles of protection for non-combatants expressed in the Geneva Convention and other foundational instruments of International Humanitarian Law. The Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) was strongly supported by the new Rwandan government that took control in the wake of the genocide and many of the civilians who were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were Hutu refugees from Rwanda, who had allegedly participated in the 1994 genocide. The reason for the close connection between the one-sided violence and civil war is that violence against civilians often serves some strategic function in the armed conflict. Some rebel groups in these internationalized conflicts also have the transnational ambitions in particular, the Islamic State (IS) lays claim to an Islamic Caliphate that stretches across several Middle Eastern states.
