Twelve persons including one soldier and 11 civilians were killed in a rebel attack in DR Congo’s troubled northeastern province of Ituri.
“We have received 11 bodies of civilian victims of a massacre in the Lopa region at Djugu. There was also the body of one soldier,” John Katabuka, director of the main regional hospital, told newsmen.
The Cooperative for the Development of Congo, CODECO, is one of a swathe of rebel groups in the violence-wracked country and local sources said their latest killing spree came in apparent reprisal for an attack on them by the military.
“These militants attacked peaceful citizens as they were fleeing military fire,” army spokesman Lieutenant Jules Ngongo told reporters.
Tshotsho is around 30 kilometres from Bunia, the capital of the Ituri province.
The CODECO is an infamous ethnic militia and political-religious organisation that claims to represent the Lendu ethnic group’s interests.
Thousands of people died between 1999 and 2003 as a result of a long-running rivalry between the Lendu and Hema communities, until a European peacekeeping force intervened.
The formation of CODECO was blamed for the resumption of violence in 2017.
In May, the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu were placed under siege, with local authority being replaced by army officers and police, but the bloodshed has not stopped.