September 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –
At least 23 people have been killed in attacks by militias of the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) against several towns in Djugu territory, in the province of Ituri, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where they are also engaged in fighting with the country’s army.
The village of Fataki has been the hardest hit after a group of men stormed the village with machetes and firearms between midnight on Sunday and Monday, killing nine women and a seven-year-old child, according to Congolese broadcaster Radio Okapi.
On the same day, the village of Jina, located 40 kilometers from Fataki, suffered three deaths in an attack, although the army, which reported one wounded, managed to kill seven CODECO militants.
The militants also attacked the Gina displaced persons camp on Monday, under the protection of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), where three people were killed, one of them a minor, even though the security forces managed to neutralize one of the attackers.
These actions by the militia have resulted in the looting of shops and houses, which have also suffered damage, and the theft of numerous goods such as medicines, mattresses and goats.
The CODECO militias are predominantly made up of members of the Lendu community. The increase in their attacks in recent months has brought back memories of the conflict between the Hema and the Lendu between 1999 and 2007 over grazing rights and political representation, which left nearly 50,000 dead in an area shaken by the operations of several armed groups.
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