DRC: Around fifteen dead in violence in North Kivu and Ituri
Around fifteen people were killed earlier this week in two separate incidents attributed to armed groups in the troubled provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, local media reported on Wednesday.
According to the village chief, Gervais Bukuka Makofi, nine people, including at least four pygmies, were killed, most of them with knives. Other people were kidnapped and houses burned. This is a provisional assessment, because the search continued Wednesday morning to try to find possible missing people, said Mr. Bukuka.
According to local sources, this attack was carried out at night while residents were sleeping in their homes.
In the neighboring province of Ituri, seven civilians died Tuesday in fighting between the rebels of the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco) and the Zaire self-defense militia in the village of Mbogi, near Lake Albert in the territory of Djugu, according to the online media 7sur7.cd, which cites a military spokesperson, Lieutenant Jules Ngongo Tshikudi.
He attributed these fighting to a rivalry between these two armed groups for the exploitation of a new mining site. The officer assured that the police would hunt down all illegal weapon holders.
The territory of Djugu remains among the most threatened by attacks from elements of the Codeco militia which claims to defend the Lendu tribe, while the rival Zaire militia which claims to protect the Hema. Fifteen people killed by these militiamen were buried last week near the town of Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.
Like North Kivu, Ituri has been under a “state of siege” for almost three years, an exceptional measure which replaced the civil administration with the police and the army but which has not succeeded in stopping the violence. .
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