Fresh ethnic clashes in DRC claim 40 lives

The violence in the Ituri province has also involved kidnappings, rape and burning of homes, especially in the Djugu and Irumu territories.

CAPE TOWN, April 29 (ANA) – At least 40 people have been killed in the latest outbreak of ethnic clashes in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Centre for African Journalists (CAJ) News reported on Thursday.

According to the newswire, the violence in the Ituri province has also involved kidnappings, rape and burning of homes, especially in the Djugu and Irumu territories.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that at least 40,000 people have fled Djugu and another 30,000 have fled Irumu.

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).

CODECO and its 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’s leader, Ngudjolo Duduko Justin, in March 2020, fighters engaged in widespread reprisals against civilian populations in Ituri.

His death also led to deadly in-fighting for control of the movement.

Jaclyn Streitfeld-Hall, publications director at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, said populations in Ituri, including the more than 1,6 million people displaced by past violence, need ongoing protection from armed groups.

“The government must urgently address the situation in Ituri and actively prevent a resurgence of ethnic targeting and atrocities,” she said.

This week, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) warned that relentless violence in Ituri has resulted in grave violations perpetrated against children since January.

A spike in inter-community violence in the province of Ituri is worsening the plight of children there, it said in a statement issued this week, urging greater international support.

The agency, along with its humanitarian organisations, has repeatedly warned about the violence, which includes machete attacks and sexual assaults.

The agency will continue to raise the alarm to prevent the world from becoming numb to what Unicef’s senior co-ordinator for Eastern DRC Jean Metenier described on Monday as a desperate humanitarian crisis.

“Every day, children and their rights are undermined through relentless violence and grave rights violations, displacement, rising food insecurity and lack of access to pretty much every basic service, including schooling,” he said.

“We say it over and again: we need the international community to step up, as our work is barely scratching the surface of needs.”

Unicef said nearly 175 grave violations have occurred across Ituri since January, such as recruitment of children into armed groups, killing and maiming of children, sexual violence and attacks on schools and hospitals.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher