(United Nations) Peacekeepers have discovered in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo mass graves with nearly 50 dead civilians, including women and children, in an area where attacks by armed groups have taken place, a spokesperson announced on Wednesday.
“Our colleagues report that mass graves containing the bodies of 42 civilians, including 12 women and six children, have been discovered in the village of Nyamamba”, in Ituri, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the secretary general of the UN.
“Another grave with the bodies of seven men was discovered in the village of Mbogi”.
“Blue Helmets conducted a patrol in the area immediately after receiving reports this weekend of attacks on civilians by Codeco militiamen”, a militia of several thousand men who say they are protecting the Lendu tribe, facing the Hema tribe and the national army, he added.
“That’s where they made this horrible discovery,” the spokesperson said, adding that the investigation should determine if there is a link between these discoveries and the attacks.
Both villages are in Uganda’s border province, Ituri, where attacks on civilians by community militias have repeatedly occurred, including in the past week when dozens of civilians were killed in attacks by various armed groups. .
“Since the beginning of January, more than 80 civilians have been killed,” said Dieudonné Lossa, coordinator of civil society in the province, before the UN announcement on Wednesday.
The UN “calls for those responsible [des attaques] be brought to justice,” added Farhan Haq, noting that the UN mission in the DRC “is providing support to the Congolese judicial system to investigate”.
“Since December 2022, at least 195 civilians have been killed, 68 injured and 84 people kidnapped in several incidents attributed to the armed groups Codeco and Zaire” in the territories of Djugu and Mahagi, he added, describing a “deterioration important” of the situation.
Shaken by inter-community conflicts, the Ituri gold region has returned to violence since the end of 2017 and the advent of the Codeco militia.