UNICEF on Saturday strongly condemned an attack that killed 16 people, including five girls under the age of 15, in Moussa village in Djugu, north of the capital of Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The CODECO militia, mainly made up of the Lendu ethnic group, is suspected of being behind the attack on the village which is inhabited primarily by the Hema ethnic group, an administrative official, Henry Trilo, told Reuters.
The victims of the attack were all formerly displaced persons who had returned to the village, UNICEF said. Several people fled to neighbouring villages following the gun and knife attack.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this attack on innocent children,” UNICEF Representative in the DR Congo Edouard Beigbeder said.
Estimates by the United Nations say that about 300 people have been killed in violence in Ituri Province alone since the beginning of 2020.
Additionally, the agency says it has received about 100 allegations of serious child rights violations, including rape, killing and maiming, in addition to attacks on schools and health centres during the months of April and May.
“We call on all parties to respect the rights of women and children,” Beigbeder added.
UNICEF further estimates that more than 200,000 people, mainly children, have fled recent violence in Djugu, Mahagi and Irumu areas in Ituri Province. They have sought refuge in host communities and extremely overcrowded displacement sites in and around the provincial capital of Bunia. The total number of people displaced in Ituri is estimated to be more than 1.2 million.
Armed groups from the Hema and Lendu communities engaged in long battles from 1999 to 2007 along the DR Congo’s border with Uganda at the peak of the country’s war years.
Retaliatory attacks between the Lendu and Hema erupted in 2017 after years of relative calm as tensions over land and other unresolved issues resurfaced. The clashes have resulted in more coordinated attacks by the CODECO militia on the military and the Hema group.
A United Nations report warned that killings, beheadings, rape and other vicious acts committed by the CODECO militia may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.
