DRC leader Tshisekedi vows to act against armed groups
An estimated 122 armed groups roam the eastern border provinces of the DRC, many of them a legacy of regional wars in the 1990s.
CAPE TOWN, April 30 (ANA) – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Felix Tshisekedi has vowed to act against armed groups in the country’s east which have killed thousands of civilians and forced thousands more to flee, news agency agency AFP reported.
According to the Centre for African Journalists (CAJ), at least 40 people have been killed in the latest outbreak of ethnic clashes in northeastern DRC. The violence has included kidnappings, rape and the burning of homes.
“I am … drawing up effective solutions that will allow us to reduce this crisis in the east once and for all,” AFP quoted Tshisekedi as telling a news conference on Thursday.
The news agency said DRC Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde had also hinted at a possible “state of security emergency”.
The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that at least 40,000 people have fled the town of Djugu and another 30,000 have run away from Irumu, a territory of Ituri province in the northeastern part of the Central African country.
According to CAJ, most of the attacks since April 9 have been attributed to ethnic Lendu armed groups collectively known as the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO), which together with affiliates have also been implicated in the killing and rape of hundreds of civilians during the first half of 2020.
After a government military offensive resulted in the killing of CODECO leader Ngudjolo Duduko Justin in March last year, fighters unleashed reprisals against civilians in Ituri. His death also led to deadly in-fighting for control of the movement.
Populations in Ituri, including more than 1,6 million people displaced by past violence, need ongoing protection from armed groups, said Jaclyn Streitfeld-Hall, publications director at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement earlier this week conflict in Ituri had led to grave violations against children since January, calling for greater international intervention. It said the violations included the recruitment of children into armed groups, their maiming and killing, sexual violence and attacks on schools and hospitals.
An estimated 122 armed groups roam the eastern border provinces of the DRC, many of them a legacy of regional wars in the 1990s. The bloodiest is the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a historically Ugandan Islamist group that has carried out massacres in the last 18 months.
According to the Kivu Security Tracker, an NGO that monitors violence in the DRC’s troubled east, the ADF has killed more than 1,200 civilians in the Beni area alone since 2017.
On March 19, the UN said a surge of ADF attacks since the start of the year had claimed nearly 200 lives and forced 40,000 people to flee their homes.
Amid criticism that it is failing to stem the violence, the UN’s peacekeeping mission MONUSCO said it would be reinforced in eastern DRC by a Kenyan army unit.
Meanwhile, President Tshisekedi urged school students in the eastern city of Beni to return home after they camped for days outside the town hall in protest against the UN’s perceived inaction. The students also demanded that the president visit the region.
– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa
