60 killed in militia attack in eastern DR Congo

Gulf Today Report

At least 60 people were killed in a militia attack on Wednesday morning at a displaced persons' camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the head of a local humanitarian group and a witness said.

Local officials and civil society sources put the toll at more than 50 dead, while the army's spokesman in Ituri province, Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, gave provisional figures of 21 dead.

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Both sources told Reuters the CODECO militia was responsible for the killings, which took place about 0200 GMT at the Savo camp in Ituri province.

Militiamen stand guard at their base in Bukiringi to protect the Walendu Bindi chiefdom from attacks. AFP

The KST said the suspected attackers were from a notorious armed group called CODECO, blamed for ethnic massacres in the area.

CODECO fighters have killed hundreds of civilians in Ituri in recent years and forced thousands to flee their homes, according to the United Nations. Recent attacks have also targeted displaced persons camps.

"I first heard cries when I was still in bed. Then several minutes of gunshots. I fled and I saw torches and people crying for help and I realised it was the CODECO militiamen who had invaded our site," said Lokana Bale Lussa, a camp resident.

"We have counted more than 60 dead and (more) seriously injured," he said.

The Djugu area, bordering Lake Albert and Uganda which lie to the east, is the theatre for a bloody, long-running feud between the Lendu and Hema communities.

Red Cross volunteers climb onto an armored vehicle of the United Nations mission in DR Congo. AFP

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.

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.

Attacks on camps for displaced people over an eight-day period in November-December left 123 dead, according to the KST.

A government spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.