A militia group in the North Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO), has reportedly killed 40 people in a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), local officials and activists have reported.
An official of the local administration for Bahema Badjere in Djugu territory in the DRC’s Ituri province, Richard Dheda, said the attack on the Lala Camp in the early hours Monday was carried out by fighters of CODECO group who invaded the camp, macheted the victims, before setting them on fire.
Dheda told journalists that at least 41 people were killed in the attack on the camp located 5km (3 miles) from Bule, the site of a United Nations peacekeeping base.
One of the inmates of the IDP camp, Maki Lombe, who managed to escape the carnage, said he saw “more than 40 bodies” lying on the ground before fleeing.
“They began to fire shots, many people were burned to death in their homes, others were killed by machete,” he said.
The CODECO militia is one of the deadliest groups that operate in the Ituri region claiming to protect the Lendu community from another ethnic group, the Hema, as well as the DRC’s army.
According to local media, they frequently target displacement camps and before the Monday attack, had killed about 60 people at another camp near Bule in one of its deadliest massacres.
Last week, the CODECO fighters attacked an army position in the Djukoth area of the province’s Mahagi territory, killing at least seven civilians.