Militia reprisal kills at least 69 in DR Congo

A militia attack killed at least 69 people in Ituri province in the conflict-torn northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), local and security sources said on Saturday.

For more than 30 years the mineral-rich eastern DR Congo has been a battleground between various armed groups, vying for control of its many mines.

Two ethnic groups — Hema and Lendu — have been locked in a long-running violent conflict in Ituri, a gold-rich province that borders Uganda and South Sudan. Armed men affiliated with the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) militia, which claims to protect Lendu, carried out attacks in several villages on April 28, killing at least 69 people, local and security sources said.

These attacks followed an earlier assault by another armed group, the Convention for the Popular Revolution — which says it fights for the Hema community — on positions held by the Congolese army near the locality of Pimbo, they said.

More than 70 people were killed when CODECO fighters launched the retaliatory attacks in late last month, civil society leader Dieudonne Losa said.

Two other security sources who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the attacks, with one stating a death toll of at least 69, including 19 militia members and soldiers.

The presence of CODECO fighters delayed the recovery of the bodies for several days, they said.

“Only 25 bodies have been buried,” Losa said on Saturday, adding that several sets of remains had yet to be recovered.

A humanitarian source described bodies “strewn on the ground” near the village of Bassa, one of the areas targeted.