UPDATE - UN deplores violence after attack on displaced peoples camp in Congo kills 45

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By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday deplored a brutal attack on forcibly displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo by non-state armed groups, saying the acts of violence resulted in the loss of innocent lives and the mass displacement of vulnerable individuals and families.

The UNHCR said Monday’s attack on a displaced peoples camp in Ituri province left at least 45 people dead, including women and children.

At least 12 people were burned alive as their shelters were set ablaze during the attack, the UNHCR said in a statement.

“UNHCR deplores in the strongest terms these heinous attacks against vulnerable civilian populations,” said Valentin Tapsoba, the director of UNHCR’s regional bureau for Southern Africa.

“This cycle of violence must end. We are calling for collective efforts to pacify the conflict in Ituri province so that the Congolese people can return to their homes and their livelihoods and live in peace.”

The UN agency reiterated its call for all actors involved to respect the civilian and humanitarian nature of displacement sites and ensure the safety and well-being of displaced populations.

The attack was carried out by the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) rebel group at the 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 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 earlier, adding the rebels also set fire to several shelters at the camp.

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

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

In February 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 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 Zaire dictator 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.