Issued on: 17/05/2020 – 16:32Modified: 17/05/2020 – 16:32
Women and children were among at least 20 civilians murdered in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congos Ituri province, local officials told AFP on Sunday.
Advertising
Read more
“We have 20 people killed for now and 17 wounded, some of them admitted to hospital,” Adel Alingi, a Djugu territory administrator, told AFP, adding that a notorious regional militia was suspected of carrying out the latest massacre overnight Saturday to Sunday.
Another local official said 22 people were killed.
Pilo Mulindro, a tribal chief, told AFP by telephone that “the victims are of all ages, children, youths, women and old men, killed by machete, by knife or by firearm”.
Local authorities blamed the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) for the massacre, one of dozens of armed groups spread across the conflict-wracked country.
CODECO is accused of the murder of hundreds of civilians this year alone.
Its members are mainly drawn from the Lendu ethnic group, who are predominantly farmers, and clash repeatedly with the Hema community of traders and herders in Ituri—a region rich in gold and oil.
For the entire country, the number of victims from ethnic violence is almost 1,000 since December 2017.
According to the UNHCR on May 8, the toll this year was at least 274 people killed and 200,000 who have fled the violence.
On Sunday, the attack apparently came from a Lendu area whereas the victims were ethnic Hema, a local source said.
In the Djugu territory, which covers more than 8,000 square kRead More – Source
[contf]
[contfnew]
france24
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
