DR Congo: New massacres in North Kivu

Source: Fides, CEPaDHO

NGOs report that more people have been killed of injured in assaults by ADF/NALU militiamen in the territory of Beni, in North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to The Study Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO), on 5 December, 14 civilians were killed in Kolikoko and another ten in Mantumbi, in two ADF attacks.

In the first attack in Kolikoko, in the district of Mabasele, in the rural municipality of Oicha around 4am, three men were killed on the Oicha-Maliki road, in front of the hand-washing device created in the fight against the Ebola epidemic. The ADF militiamen cut the head of one victim and the hands of the others. One Bible was soaked the blood of another victim.

The second attack took place a little further west, in the village of Mantumbi, around pm. Ten civilians were killed, CEPADHO fears that the final toll is much higher, because there are still people missing.

According to CEPADHO, with these latest massacres, there are 141 civilian victims of the ADF assaults in this area, in retaliation for the vast offensive launched by the Congolese army since October 30th.

The massacres have provoked strong protests from the local population, which asks the national army and the forces of the UN mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) to take concrete initiatives to protect civilians.

On a political level, on 26 November, a declaration signed by some parliamentarians deplored the fact that the military operations started on 30 October against the ADF were not accompanied by actions to protect the civilian population in case of reprisals.

The declaration also complains about the lack of a clear identification of the enemy and the absence of a serious inquiry into the allegations of complicity on behalf of some members of the national army and the Congolese national police. It stresses the need to alternate officers serving in the Beni region for a long time, to avoid the risk that they become accomplices of armed groups active in the area.

On 2 December the Bishops of Kivu decreed the suspension of church activities for one day to protest the massacres of civilians.