20 civilians killed in attacks in northern Congo

Twenty civilians were killed in attacks by gunmen on remote areas in Ituri and North Kivu provinces in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the past three days, according to local and international sources on Monday.
“We counted 11 people dead on Sunday and Monday in four different regions,” said Alinghi Mokuba, governor of Dejogo district in Ituri province.

In turn, a source in the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) said, “We can confirm that 12 people were killed in Dejogo district.”

The authorities attributed these attacks to gunmen from the Congo Development Cooperative (Kodeco), the militia accused of committing most of the massacres in the region.

The elements of this militia mainly belong to the Lendu ethnic group, whose members mainly live from agriculture, and who have clashed repeatedly with members of the Hema ethnic group, whose majority of them work in trade and livestock.

In neighboring North Kivu province, between six and eight people were killed on Monday in an attack by an armed group affiliated with the ADF, according to local sources.

The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) is a Ugandan armed organization that has been under widespread attack since November by the Congolese army.

Since the army began operations against them, militia gunmen living in the bush have launched continuous attacks on civilians in Ituri.