DRC: Pygmies of Beni Cut Off From Ancestral Lands, Struggle to Survive

The Pygmy communities of Beni, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are now living far from the forests their ancestors once called home. Displaced by decades of conflict and land encroachment, these indigenous groups face an uncertain future. Once reliant on the dense jungle for food, medicine, and shelter, the Pygmies of Beni have been pushed into makeshift settlements on the outskirts of towns. Here, they lack legal rights to the land they now occupy and are often excluded from local decision-making. Without access to their traditional hunting grounds, many Pygmies have been forced into low-paid labor on farms owned by outsiders. Others rely on small-scale trade, but their lack of formal education and political representation leaves them highly vulnerable. Local aid workers report that the community’s cultural identity is eroding. The loss of ancestral territory means younger generations are growing up without the knowledge of forest survival, rituals, and language that defined their elders. “We are strangers in our own country,” said one community elder. “The forest gave us everything. Now we have nothing.” The DRC government has yet to implement specific protections for the Pygmies of Beni. While international human rights groups have called for urgent action, no clear resettlement or land-rights plan has been announced. For now, the Pygmies of Beni remain—but not as they once were. Their survival is no longer tied to the forest, but to the mercy of a society that has largely forgotten them.