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Agence France-Presse

More than 50 civilians were killed when machete-wielding militiamen attacked a site for displaced people in strife-torn eastern DR Congo, sources said.
Fifty-two people, some of them children, were killed, a source with the UN’s peacekeeping mission Monusco said, adding that 36 were wounded. The Congolese government, which spoke of a “crime against humanity”, also said “about 50” people had died.
Local officials and civil society sources put the toll at more than 50 dead, while a respected monitor, the US-based Kivu Security Tracker (KST), said “at least” 40 were killed.
The army’s spokesman in Ituri province, Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, gave provisional figures of 21 dead.
“The massacre of defenceless civilians is a crime against humanity,” he said.
The KST said the suspected attackers, carrying “edged weapons”, were from a notorious armed group called Codeco, blamed for a string of ethnic massacres in the area.


The communication ministry said in a tweet that regular army troops “stopped” the attack, while Monusco tweeted that its peacekeepers helped quell the attack, which took place in the Djugu area near Lake Albert.
The area is the theatre of a bloody, long-running feud between the Lendu and Hema communities.
Fighting between the two groups flared between 1999 and 2003, claiming tens of thousands of lives before being quelled by a European Union peacekeeping force, Artemis.
Burkina Faso in mourning after jihadist massacre leaves 80 dead
Violence then resumed in 2017, blamed on the emergence of CODECO – the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (Codeco) – which claims to defend the Lendu.
Since then, Codeco attacks have caused hundreds of deaths and prompted more than 1.5 million people to flee their homes, while half of the region’s population faces food insecurity, according to the Danish Refugee Council.
The latest assault targeted the Plaine Savo camp for displaced peple, where more than 24,000 took refuge following violence in Djugu in 2019, the Norwegian Refugee Council said.
Raids on camps for displaced people over an eight-day period in November-December left 123 dead, according to the KST.
Jean Richard Dhedda Lenga, the senior administrator in Bahema Badjere district, said Codeco raiders attacked the site “at around 9pm, 10pm” on Tuesday.
“We have a provisional total of 59 dead” and around 40 wounded,” he said.
“I have just left the area – young people are looking for other bodies in huts and in the bush.”
Dozens sentenced to death over murders of UN experts in Congo
Desire Malo Dra, a representative of civil society groups in Bahema Badjere, said most of the casualties were women and children.
“I have counted 53 bodies, others are coming in, they are all being gathered here where I am,” he said.
“The militiamen came armed with machetes. Many victims had their throats cut,” he said.
He added that the assailants “carried out their work calmly”, and the army arrived hours later, on Wednesday morning.
Monusco said on Twitter that its peacekeepers “arrived on the scene to stop the killing and repel the attackers”.
The UN’s children’s agency Unicef said at least 15 children were among the dead, and more than 30 children were wounded.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which, like other NGOs and organisations, strongly condemned the massacre, said in a statement that the Plaine Savo camp housed more than 24,000 people “who fled the violence in the territory of Djugu in 2019”.
Ituri and neighbouring North Kivu province were placed last year under a “state of siege”, a measure giving exceptional powers to the army and police.
In addition to attacks by Codeco, the region is struggling to contain the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the most brutal of an estimated 122 armed groups that roam eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.


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Africa

Children among dozens killed in DR Congo machete massacre

A Bangladeshi soldier of the United Nations Mission in DR Congo, Monusco, shoots at Codeco militiamen to repel them as they launch an attack on a Red Cross team in December. File photo: AFP

Two Chinese nationals killed in DR Congo gold mine attack

Artisanal miners pan for gold at the Luhihi gold mine, 50km from the town of Bukavu in DR Congo’s South Kivu province on November 6. Photo: AFP

An artisanal miner pans for gold in the Luhihi gold mine, 50 km from the town of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on November 6, 2021. - The Luhihi mining site was discovered by the local population about two years ago, a mountain of gold at the heart of conflicts as well as human rights violations, in the last five months seven people have died in inhumane conditions. (Photo by Guerchom NDEBO / AFP)

At least 15 dead after Mount Nyiragongo volcano erupts in Democratic Republic of Congo

Congolese residents of Goma arrive in Rwanda on Sunday after fleeing from the Mount Nyiragongo volcano after it erupted on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE

(210523) -- GOMA, May 23, 2021 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on May 22, 2021 shows the night sky of Goma city, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Nyiragongo volcano, located not far from the DR Congo's border with Rwanda, started to erupt on Saturday. Right after the volcano burst into activity at around 7 p.m. local time on Saturday, the night sky of Goma, with a population of nearly 2 million, was illuminated with orange flames. The electricity supply across much of city was cut off. (Str/Xinhua)

epa09223123 Refugee Congolese residents of Goma sit in a stadium in Rwanda after fleeing from Mount Nyiragongo volcano as it erupted over Goma, Rubavu District, Rwanda, 23 May 2021. One of the planets most active volcanoes Mount Nyiragongo in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo erupted 22 May causing evacuations in some parts of Goma. EPA-EFE/EUGENE UWIMANA

TOPSHOT - Children play with lava from Mount Nyiragongo on May 23, 2021 in Goma. - A river of boiling lava came to a halt on the outskirts of Goma Sunday, sparing the city in eastern DR Congo from disaster after the nighttime eruption of Mount Nyiragongo sent thousands of terrified residents fleeing in panic. Fire and strong fumes emanated from the blackish molten rock as it swallowed up houses, heading towards Goma airport on the shores of Lake Kivu. (Photo by Moses Sawasawa / AFP)

Suspected jihadists kill dozens in Burkina Faso, in one of deadliest attacks in country’s history

Soldiers patrol near the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) military barracks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in September 2015. Photo: AFP

People take part during funeral for Spanish journalist David Beriain in the small town where he was born, Artajona, northern Spain, Saturday, May 1, 2021. Two Spanish journalists and the Irish director of a wildlife foundation were killed Monday in an ambush in eastern Burkina Faso. The two journalists were working with the wildlife campaigner on a documentary about poachers in a national park bordering Benin when they were attacked by gunmen. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

News

World


Militiamen from notorious armed group called Codeco attack site for displaced people in eastern DR Congo
Sources say most of the 50 casualties were women and children; Congolese government calls it a ‘crime against humanity’



Militiamen from notorious armed group called Codeco attack site for displaced people in eastern DR Congo, slaughtering women and children.
