RUNDOWN
• Militants are suspected to have killed at least 24 civilians over the weekend in several villages of eastern DR Congo’s troubled Ituri province.
• CODECO fighters torched houses in three separate villages and killed 24 people.
• The Lendu and Hema communities have a longstanding feud that led to thousands of deaths between 1999 and 2003 before an intervention by a European peacekeeping force.
CODECO militants are suspected to have killed at least 24 civilians over the weekend in several villages of eastern DR Congo’s troubled Ituri province, local civilian sources said Monday.
According to Charute Banza, a civil society leader in the area, the attacks occurred early Sunday afternoon in Djugu territory.
Charute said that CODECO fighters torched houses in three separate villages and killed 24 people, updating an earlier toll of 16 dead after more bodies were discovered.
“We found more bodies in Jisa, Largu and Blukwa in the north of the territory, other villages remain inaccessible. It’s terrible … we are dying like animals and many people had fled from their homes.” Banza said.
Earlier, a humanitarian worker in the area, who declined to be named, had also said 16 bodies had been discovered in the wake of the raids.
The Congolese army spokesman in Ituri, Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, reported that four civilians had been killed in Sunday’s raids, as well as one soldier and two militants following AFP being unable to independently confirm the death toll.
Desire Mbutchu a local human rights activist told AFP that CODECO fighters launched the attack on the rival Zaire militia on Sunday allegedly in revenge for the killing of a teacher from the Lendu community.
The Lendu and Hema communities have a longstanding feud that led to thousands of deaths between 1999 and 2003 before an intervention by a European peacekeeping force. Violence resumed in 2017, blamed on the emergence of the CODECO militia, which claims to represent the Lendu.
“We ask the Zaire group to stop the provocations, CODECO militiamen to respect the Nairobi peace process and the authorities to post soldiers in Hema and Lendu villages to protect people,” Mbutchu told AFP.
Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO) representatives attended recent peace talks in Kenya with several dozen armed groups operating in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Zaire militia members declined an invitation to participate.
By Jane Kibathi.
