DRC: Dozens killed in attack on camp for displaced people | News

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Suspected militiamen attacked a camp in Djugu territory, in Ituri province, killing civilians ‘with edged weapons’, monitor says.

Suspected militiamen have attacked a camp for internally displaced people in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), killing dozens of people, according to local sources and a monitoring group.

The overnight assault took place in the DRC’s restive Ituri province, which has been placed under a state of siege since May 2021, an exceptional measure taken by the government to combat armed groups roaming the country’s mineral-rich east.

“At least 40 civilians were killed with edged weapons last night in Plaine Savo” in Djugu territory, the Kivu Security Tracker (KST), which monitors violence in the region, said on Twitter on Wednesday.

At least 40 civilians were killed with edged weapons last night in Plaine Savo, near #Bubble (#Djugu territory, #Ituri). The #Code–#URDPC are suspected. #DRC pic.twitter.com/Vdvvjn7rfy

– Kivu Security Barometer (@KivuSecurity) February 2, 2022

Reuters news agency, citing the head of a local humanitarian group and a witness, said the death toll was at least 60.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but KST said fighters from the Congo Armed Forces Development Cooperative, known as CODECO, were suspected of being behind the raid.

The Djugu area, bordering Lake Albert and Uganda which lie to the east, is the theater for 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.

Violence then resumed in 2017, blamed on the emergence of 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.

More to follow.