UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have discovered mass graves containing the bodies of 49 civilians after receiving reports of attacks from a local militant group. The mass grave of a total of 42 victims including 6 children was discovered in the village of Nyamamba, seven other men were found in another village, Mbogi.
The graves were discovered in two villages in northeastern Ituri province, roughly 30 kilometres (19 miles) east of the town of Bunia, according to Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN, who made the announcement to reporters in New York on Wednesday.
“Peacekeepers launched a patrol to the area immediately after receiving reports of attacks on civilians by the CODECO militias over the weekend. This is when they made the gruesome discoveries,” he said, referring to the armed group known as the Cooperative for the Development of Congo.
UN will call for an investigation to explore the possibilities of whether the mass graves and the reported attacks are linked.
He added that the UN regional peacekeeping operation, known as MONUSCO, was “supporting the Congolese judicial system to investigate the attacks” and called “for the perpetrators to be brought to justice”.
A rash of violence has recently occurred in Ituri, a troubled region bordering Uganda, as a result of CODECO’s retaliatory assaults following the murder of a Lendu community teacher. The organisation claims to represent the ethnic group.
A long-running conflict between the Lendu and Hema villages resulted in thousands of fatalities between 1999 and 2003 until a European peacekeeping force intervened.
On Wednesday, Haq issued a warning about a “significant deterioration of the security situation” in Ituri, claiming that since December, attacks by the CODECO and Zaire militias had resulted in at least 195 civilian deaths, 68 injuries, and 84 kidnappings.
