14 Killed In Eastern DR Congo By Two Armed Rebel Groups

At least 14 civilians were killed in northeastern DR Congo on Friday, October 29 when their village was attacked by two armed groups, monitors said.

The deaths occurred in the village of Gina in Ituri province, “during an incursion by the #CODECO-UDPC and ALC” groups, the Kivu Security Tracker (KST) said on Twitter.

“They also attacked #Nizi, in the same territory,” it said.

The assault began at 4:00 am local time and lasted for seven hours until the military regained control of the area, one of its specialists told AFP, asking not to be identified.

Ituri is one of three eastern provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo battling armed groups as the area is rooted in long-standing herder-farmer disputes over cattle.

Fighting between the Hema and Lendu communities flared between 1999 and 2003, claiming tens of thousands of lives but was quelled by the intervention of a European Union peacekeeping force, Artemis.

More violence resumed in 2017, blamed on the emergence of the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO), an armed group that claims to defend Lendu interests. CODECO has since disintegrated into several rival factions.

CODECO fighters joined up with another armed group, the Alliance for the Liberation of the Congo (ALC), to carry out the raid, the KST said in it’s Friday statement.