NGOs warn that armed groups already control three quarters of the strategic territory of Lubero

May 26. (EUROPE PRESS) –

Congolese civil society organizations have warned the United Nations that the armed groups already control more than three quarters of the territory of Lubero, in the northern province of North Kivu, where more than a dozen guerrillas operate, and which has already become a bastion from which these militias launch attacks throughout the north of the country.

The territory, where around a million people live, is practically under the control of these guerrillas, which has led to a brutal impact on the development of a region so disconnected from the rest of the country that right now there are “inaccessible” places. , lamented the president of the civil society groups of Lubero, Georges Katsongo, in comments to the head of the UN mission for the north of the country, Josiah Obat.

The armed groups have become increasingly daring in their attacks in Lubero, especially in the interior of the territory, the scene in March of this year of the first attack in the area by the fearsome militias of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a organization that the United Nations accuses of the execution in 2021 of more than 1,200 civilians.

Katsongo has asked Obat for an effort so that MONUSCO tries to “strengthen its activities” in the area so that “peace and security become a reality in the north of the country.” However, Obat has indicated that the powers of the UN mission are limited. “The solution to the actions of the local armed groups must come from the local communities,” the UN official explained to Radio Okapi.