Around 20 civilians were killed on Saturday in two separate attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where fighting also resumed between the army and M23 rebels, local sources said on Sunday. .
In Ituri province, the Codeco militia (Cooperative for the development of Congo), which claims to protect the Lendu tribe once morest the Hema tribe, is accused of having attacked five villages in the Mahagi territory on Saturday morning.
“So far we have counted 15 dead, mostly women, children and old people,” Arnold Lokwa, head of the “chefferie” (grouping of villages) of Panduru, told AFP.
In the neighboring province of North Kivu, it is the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) rebels, affiliated with the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), who are accused of having killed at least nine people in the village of Nguli, in the territory of Lubero.
The victims “were killed with bladed weapons, machetes and knives”, a tenth person was seriously injured and two children are missing”, Kambale Kamboso, the village chief, told AFP.
See also: DRC: testimonies in Mukondi following the ADF attack
Originally mainly Muslim Ugandan rebels, the ADF have been rooted since the mid-1990s in eastern DRC, where they are accused of having massacred thousands of civilians.
Resumption of fighting between the army and the M23
In the same province of North Kivu, but further south, fighting also resumed on Saturday between the army and the rebels of the M23 in the territory of Masisi, northwest of the provincial capital Goma, following a few days of ‘lull.
In a statement, the army accused the rebellion of attacking at least six of its positions and of committing “recurrent violations of the ceasefire”.
Residents interviewed by telephone reported fighting in the evening in Bihambwe, not far from the mining town of Rubaya.
The M23 (“March 23 Movement”) is a predominantly Tutsi rebellion, supported by Rwanda according to Kinshasa and UN experts, which has seized large swathes of North Kivu territory for a year.
See also: DR Congo: who are the M23 rebels?
After several announcements of cessation of hostilities not followed by effect, a ceasefire should have intervened on March 7 but was not respected either.
The fighting had however stopped a few days this week, while the M23 withdrew from villages where Burundian soldiers from the force sent to the region by the Community of East African States (EAC) were deployed.
The eastern provinces of the DRC have been plagued by violence from dozens of armed groups for nearly 30 years.
