A new carnage in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Soldiers discovered at least 17 decapitated bodies in decomposition on Thursday while patrolling the banks of the Ituri River, a region located in the northeast of the country.
“So far, there are 17 heads, some found in a canoe and others (…) in the bush, right next to the river”explained Friday May 27 to AFP Dieudonné Malangay, member of the civil society of the chiefdom of Walese Vonkutu. “It is difficult to identify the victims because of the state of the bodies. It will take expertise from the specialized services to fully understand the circumstances of their death”he added.
“According to the army that made the discovery, there are 17 bodies. We are going there to verify this information” and carry out burials, said David Beiza, president of the local Red Cross.
Pending the results of the expert appraisals, Dieudonne Malangay guess it’s about “civilians taken hostage who were killed by ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) rebels”, a group presented by the jihadist organization Islamic State as its branch in central Africa.
The bloody attacks by the ADF group are frequent in the territory of Irumu, in southern Ituri (close to the border with the province of North Kivu), where violence between Hema and Lendu ethnic groups is numerous for over twenty years.
In the territory of Djugu, 130 kilometers further north, at least nine people were also killed on Thursday, Pilo Mulindo, chieftaincy official, told AFP. Charity Banza, president of the local civil society. Militiamen from the armed group Codeco (Cooperative for the Development of Congo) are suspected this time.
Structured around a religious sect that claims to defend the Lendu, Codeco is considered as one of the deadliest armed groups in the eastern part of the DRC.