Over 60 people killed in east DR Congo province in 1 week
This photograph taken on January 6, 2023 shows cars passing by a destroyed military vehicle in Rugari, after clashes between the Congolese army and M23 rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. PHOTO / AFP
What you need to know:
- Over 120 armed groups roam mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, many of them a legacy of regional wars that flared at the turn of the century.
- Violence resumed in 2017, blamed on the emergence of the CODECO. The Zaire militia says it represents the Hema community.
More than 60 people have been killed during a bloody week in eastern DR Congo's Ituri province, local sources said, as militia attacks plague the turbulent region.
Over 120 armed groups roam mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, many of them a legacy of regional wars that flared at the turn of the century.
A spate of violence erupted last Sunday in Ituri after a teacher belonging to the Lendu community was killed, triggering reprisal attacks from the CODECO militia, which claims to represent the ethnic group.
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. The Zaire militia says it represents the Hema community.
On Sunday and Monday, after the teacher's killing, CODECO fighters killed at least 24 civilians in attacks on several different villages in Ituri's Djugu territory, according to local civil society representatives and humanitarian workers.
CODECO's military leader Desire Londroma told AFP via telephone that the attacks were to "avenge the death" of the teacher, whom he said Zaire militants had killed.
On Wednesday, a civil society representative in southern Ituri, Dieudonne Lossa, said that an attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) had killed eight civilians.
The Islamic State group claims the ADF as its affiliate in central Africa.
On Thursday, an aid worker in Djugu territory who asked for anonymity said that nine bodies had been discovered after fresh CODECO attacks.
An apparent attack by the same group also occurred the following day, according to local chief Mibidjo Panga Mandro, who said that 21 bodies had been discovered as of Saturday.
Unidentified armed men also killed a hospital director in northern Ituri late on Friday, according to a local civil society actor who declined to be named.
CODECO military chief Londroma blamed that killing on the Zaire militia.
AFP was unable to independently confirm the death toll.
Representatives of CODECO (Cooperative for the Development of the Congo) attended recent peace talks in Kenya with several dozen armed groups operating in eastern DR Congo.
Zaire militia members, for their part, declined an invitation to participate.
