Link to article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/10/at-least-14-killed-in-eastern-dr-congo-refugee-camp-attack
Rebels have killed at least 14 people, including children, in an overnight attack on a displaced persons camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest violence in the conflict-wracked region, the army and a civil society leader have said. An army spokesman, Jules Ngongo Tsikudi, said that the rebels raided a site outside the town of Fataki in Djugu region of eastern Ituri province where hundreds of civilians have sought refuge in recent months. The civil society leader Dieudonne Lossa gave a provisional death toll of 15 and blamed an armed rebel group known as CODECO, who staged another attack on a nearby mining site on Sunday that killed at least 35. CODECO – the name for the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo – is a political-religious sect that seeks to represent the interests of the Lendu ethnic group, one of the many ethnic groups of the DRC. They are considered one of the deadliest groups operating in the DRC. Jules Tsuba, president of an association of civil society groups in Djugu, said most of the victims in Monday’s attack were children and stressed that the death toll was provisional, and that it could increase.
CODECO is notorious for targeting civilians, killing 18 people at a church last month and another 60 at a displaced persons camp in February. Security forces have governed these regions since May last year, hoping to curb attacks, but civilian massacres have continued. About 2,500 civilians have been in these killed regions between May 2021 and April 2022, according to the KST.
President Felix Tshisekedi, under pressure from deputies from the provinces, has decided to review the effectiveness of the state of siege. Amnesty International, in a report released on Tuesday, said the strategy had led to abuses rather than increased security.
I find it very sad that CODECO and these other rebel groups continue to murder people along ethnic lines in the DRC and other central African countries, although you have all of these ethnic groups who really shouldn’t be grouped together in a single country battling over territory. CODECO, from what I’ve read, seems extremely brutal, and it is sad that government has done nothing to look to curb their murders, but this is nothing new, and will probably continue for a long time.