Rebels attack internally displaced people camp, killing 41 in eastern DR Congo

KIGALI, Rwanda

At least 41 people were killed, including women and children, by armed rebels in an attack on an internally displaced people camp in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo on Monday, a senior official confirmed.

The attack was carried out by the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) rebel group at Lala camp for displaced people in the chiefdom of Bahema Badjere in Ituri province, which borders Uganda and South Sudan, according to the chiefdom’s head Jean-Richard Dheda.

Fear gripped the displaced people as the attackers' group entered the camp with knives and firearms and assaulted people indiscriminately, forcing people to flee to a safe area.

"The attack occurred around 1 a.m. (0000GMT). The preliminary death toll stands at 41, with many women and children among them. Seven more people were injured. They used knives and firearms to carry out the massacre," Dheda told Anadolu, adding that "the rebels also set fire to several shelters at the camp."

Dheda claimed that government forces stationed about 4 kilometers (about 2.5 miles) from the camp intervened too late.

Following the attack, many residents fled the camp for safety to a secure area at Bule trading center, a few kilometers from the site of the attack, the chiefdom’s head said.

In Feb. 2022, CODECO militiamen massacred more than 60 displaced people at the Plaine Savo site in the same chiefdom.

CODECO has intensified attacks on villages in Ituri since 2021, destroying nearly 1,300 houses in one such attack.

The group was once a peaceful agricultural movement founded in the 1970s, with roots in the Ituri Province's agriculturist Lendu communities.

The Lendu are an ethnolinguistic group that gradually transformed into an armed insurgency after coming into conflict with the pastoralist Hema people. Lendu claimed that the Hema had been given preference and benefits under Belgian colonial rule and then by the dictator of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko.

The group, which the UN Security Council refers to as the "CODECO cult" because it performs a mix of Animist and Christian rituals, declared a unilateral cease-fire in August 2020, but then increased its attacks.

Since May 2021, the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu have been under "siege" where President Felix Tshisekedi replaced senior civilian officials in the state with army officers in a bid to curb the growing insecurity.