The province of Ituri in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo was on Sunday the scene of a new killing of at least 20 civilians, in addition to the nearly 1.000 victims and tens of thousands of moved since December 2017.
Men, women and children were massacred in the middle of the night with diffétentes weapons, including machetes, by the attackers in this province where some of the leaders denounce the indifference of Kinshasa authorities 2.000 km away.
"We are currently recording 20 people killed and 17 others injured, some of whom have been admitted to hospital", said to an AFP correspondent, Adel Alingi.
Another source in the local government is making a record of 22 victims, including "eight men, seven women, the others are children".
"The victims are of all ages, children, young, women and old people, killed with machete, knife, with guns", says a custom leader, Pilo Mulindro, joined by AFP correspondent.
A photo of children cut to pieces has been circulating several times on Twitter.
At least 274 people have been massacred and another 200.000 have fled the violence since the beginning of the year, estimated the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on 8 May.
On 10 January, a joint report of the United Nations Mission in the Congo (monusco) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had at least 701 people killed since the end of 2017.
"We were able to confirm crimes against humanity", said High Commissioner for Human Rights Michèle Bachelet visiting Ituri on 23 January.
The killing is awarded to a religious-religious militia, the Co-op for the Development of Congo (Codeco).
- "Terrorist and genocidal acts" -
The claims to defend the interests of a community, the Lendu, mostly farmers. The victims are mostly members of the Hema community, mainly farmers and merchants.
This is what happened on Sunday: the militiamen attacked a Hema chiefdom, detailed the admin of the territory. The attackers came from a Lendu territory, said a source of civil society, Charity Charity.
The violence takes place in the territory of Djugu, where the villages and lands of both communities are intertwined in each other.
" We have pursued these out ", provides a spokesperson for the Congolese army, who denounces the " terrorist and genocidal acts " of the Codeco.
" This is a militia from the civil population. They retire to their community " after their killing adds this spokesperson, Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, joined by AFP.
"No army in the world can be everywhere in an area like Djugu", he says by asking the people to collaborate with the army through alert systems. The territory of Djugu covers just over 8.000 km2
Two United Nations battalions are also present in Ituri province. They were reinforced by "special reserve forces", said the on 28 April.
"The mission of these Blue Helmets is to support the Congolese police and the Congolese army to secure the people of several bodies who are victims of the abuse of the militiamen", said the.
The Blue Helmets are patrolling and evacuated injured Congolese soldiers last week.
This week, Ituri parliamentarians met with the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate to ask them about the security situation in their province.
Between 1999 and 2003, tens of thousands of people had been killed in Ituri in a conflict between Hema and Lendu militias.
The violence resumed at the end of 2017. Contrary to the war of 1999-2003, the Hema community did not reconstituted militias to respond to the violence caused by Codeco.
The Hema community "in its majority, has so far refrained from reprisals", had stressed the High Commissioner for Human Rights during her visit in January.
Recently out of prison after serving his sentence by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a former active war leader in Ituri, Thomas Lubanga, called his " brothers " of the Codeco " to stop their criminal business ".
THis is what Mukwege has said on these killings!
Dr. Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize 2018 condemned this Sunday, May 17, the new killing recorded the day before in several cities in Ituri, especially the death of at least 18 people in the village Jisa-Wada in Buku group in the territory of Djugu.
It was on his twitter account that the famous Congolese gynecologist spoke. He believes that the free world should be ashamed of these massacres that have been going on in the country for years.
As in the case of the anniversary of the of massacre in the plain of the (South Kivu), Mukwege calls to " dig up " the United Nations mapping report that traces massacres in the East and their authors who are " known and protected ".
" The free world, born after 1945, should be ashamed of the massacres that have been taking place in the DRC for more than 2 decades. Criminals are known and protected. The mapping report needs to be dug up to end this scandal calls Denis Mukwege.
It should be noted that several civilians were killed by militiamen on Saturday night at this ended week, May 17th in Djugu.
The president of the civil society of the territory of Djugu, who confided in the local press, was talking about at least 18 people killed and about ten of the wounded. A record he still called a temporary.
In an interview with Laprunellerdc. info, this Sunday, the army spokesperson in Ituri, is talking more about a "cowardly" attack of militiamen against civilians because, unable to cope with the army.
Jules Ngongo, presents his compassions to the families of the new victims of this killing.
The army repeats its commitment to do everything to be everywhere in order to protect the population. To achieve this, it calls on the population to continue working with them so that the "satanic" projects of the militiamen are quickly suffocated and suffocated.