The United Nations says its peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo discovered five probable mass grave sites in the eastern Ituri province, which has been largely dogged by ethnic violence that has killed at least 263 people.
A report from the mission provides the most comprehensive portrait to date of the human cost from the months of violence between Lendu pastoralists and Hema herders since December, that has caused one of Africa’s most serious refugee crises.
Violence across eastern Congo’s borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi has spiked since President Joseph Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate in 2016, eroding state authority and emboldening armed groups.
A failure to conduct a an election to find Kabila’s replacement meant he stayed on in power beyond his constitutionally stipulated mandate.
The mostly Lendu-led attacks have forced more than 60,000 people to flee across Lake Albert into Uganda, and the U.N. refugee agency expects 200,000 refugees to reach Uganda this year.
Tens of thousands of others have fled to other towns inside Congo.
The investigators did not provide details about the suspected mass graves, but said that about 120 towns and villages were pillaged and destroyed between December and mid-March.
