BUNIA: Militia fighters have killed at least 15 civilians at several villages in the gold-rich and volatile Ituri province of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), local sources said on Thursday, AFP reported.
Militia fighters, reportedly belonging to the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO), carried out the brutal attack.
The targeted villages bore the brunt of the violence, with Innocent Matukadala, chief of the Banyali-Kalo administrative sector, said that some victims had been gruesomely beheaded. Matukadala revealed that the victims were kidnapped between April 15 and 16, and the discovery of their bodies was only made known on Thursday. Most of those killed were artisanal gold miners, amplifying the devastation wrought by the attack.
Jean Robert Basiloko, representing the civil society of the affected sector, provided further details, indicating that two groups of CODECO fighters were responsible for the bloodshed, resulting in the loss of 20 lives, which included a village chief, three women, and a child. The ruthless assault underscores the ongoing strife fueled by ethnic tensions and the struggle for resources in the region.
CODECO, purportedly advocating for the interests of the Lendu group against their rivals, the Hema, has been implicated in numerous attacks on villagers throughout the year. The group’s resurgence in violence has reignited fears of instability and insecurity in Ituri, an area scarred by previous cycles of conflict.
Ituri province has a grim history of ethnic-based militia clashes, dating back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, which claimed thousands of lives before the intervention of European forces. Despite efforts to quell violence, sporadic outbreaks of conflict have persisted, causing mass displacement.
