Villagers and a security officer reported that nine people were killed in an attack close to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where clashes between two ethnic groups are engaged in a deadly land conflict.
The C happened on Sunday in the neighboring province of Mai-Ndombe, where since last June, at least 300 people have perished and more than 50,000 have been displaced, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). The death toll of nine was confirmed by a security officer.
According to Jean Bedel Mulele, the traditional head in the adjoining hamlet of Kie, six victims were sent to the mortuary at the Ndjili hospital in eastern Kinshasa, but “three others were in pieces… and could not be put back together,” he added.
The Yaka, who the Teke claim arrived before them, and the Teke, who believe they were the first settlers of a strip of land measuring about 200 kilometres on the bank of the Congo River, are at odds in this dispute.
The Yosso village was attacked in the early hours of the morning by an armed group, “killing nine people, including two children,” according to Reagan Mangawana, a native of the community who claims to have been there on Monday from his home in Kinshasa.
He told newsmen late Monday that the southern portion of the village was completely destroyed by fire and that five persons had suffered critical injuries.
He used the term “Mobondo,” a Yaka community militia, to claim credit for the assault.
Since neighboring nations concentrate on long-standing issues in the eastern part of the country, the simmering violence in Mai-Ndombe has mostly gone unnoticed outside of the Democratic Republic of Congo.