Various conflicts involving armed groups and government forces in Congo have killed more than 1,300 civilians in the past eight months and violence has surged in recent weeks in eastern provinces, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Friday.
Michelle Bachelet said some incidents may amount to crimes against humanity or war crimes, with armed groups committing massacres and security forces also responsible for grave human rights violations.
The recent violence in Ituri province has also displaced more than 200,000 people, according to medical charity Doctors Without Borders.
Multiple armed groups have been present in Congo’s mineral-rich eastern provinces for decades, attacking civilians and fighting for control of the territory and its valuable resources.
The U.N. said the principal armed group staging attacks in Ituri province is known as CODECO and is comprised mainly of fighters from the Lendu community. Its main leader was killed in March.
“The attacks and the nature of the violence committed by the armed groups have grown increasingly more gruesome, including sexual violence, beheadings and mutilation of corpses,” according to a statement by the U.N. Joint Human Rights Office of Congo.
Since October more than 531 civilians have been killed by armed groups in Ituri province, the U.N. said, including 375 since March.
In North Kivu province, the main armed group known as the Allied Democratic Forces has been staging retaliatory attacks since the military launched major operations against it in November. ADF rebels have abducted children, attacked schools and hospitals and used machetes, axes and heavy weapons, according to the U.N.
The U.N. on Friday called on Congolese authorities to establish state authority in conflict regions by increasing the presence of security forces and ensuring civilian protection.
“When the state leaves a vacuum, others tend to fill it,” the statement said.
The U.N. said more than 110,000 civilians also have been displaced in South Kivu province, where 74 people have been killed since October and at least 36 women and children have been raped in a resurgence of ethnic violence. That conflict between the Banyamulenge and the Bafuliro, Babembe, and Banyindu communities has been “fuelled by hate speech disseminated through the media, social media and in public discourse,” according to the U.N. Soldiers have also been responsible for rights violations there, it said.
