Sixty-two people have been killed in a series of attacks perpetrated between Thursday and Friday by the militias of the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) against more than a dozen villages in the country, once again in the territory of Djugu, in the northeastern province of Ituri, where more than 300 civilians have been killed by this armed group since the beginning of the year.
According to the civil society of Djugu, the militias carried out the attacks practically simultaneously against about twelve populations of the territory, in particular in the commune of Banyari Kilo.
Among those killed were 22 men, 12 women and five children. Another 23 civilians were wounded, 11 of whom are in critical condition and need to be evacuated to the provincial capital of Ituri, Bunia, to receive appropriate treatment, according to the Congolese radio station Radio Okapi.
Although the worst damage has been reported in Kilo, where authorities have recovered up to 33 bodies, CODECO has also killed people in the remaining villages.
The same sources have indicated that at least two clinics and more than 150 houses have been burned and more than 200 stores have been looted.
The Congolese Army managed to kill 14 militiamen and wound four others and since then a »precarious calm» has been observed in the province, which has been under a state of emergency for two years to fight this militia.
The United Nations and local organizations estimate that more than 485 civilians have died in Ituri from December 1 to March 14; 333 of them only during the first quarter of this year in Djugu, and the vast majority at the hands of these militias.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
