DRC: Pygmies massacred by dozens in Ituri
The province of Ituri is the scene of recurrent massacres.
MONUSCO / Abel Kavanagh
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the pygmies do not ignore the massacre of around forty of them last week in an attack attributed by the authorities of the province of Ituri to the fighters of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), against the village of Abembi.
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With our correspondent in Kinshasa,
Pascal Mulegwa
Anger, emotion and indignation… Yesterday, the Dynamics of Indigenous Peoples' Groups (DGPA), a civil society collective that defends the rights of pygmies called for a three-day national mourning against a backdrop of feelings of abandonment from the authorities.
The tears of a traditional leader of indigenous peoples in front of the press and members of civil society in Kinshasa, the collective is categorical: there are massacres in Ituri which target their villages.
Patrick Saidi is the coordinator of the DGPA.
“
No later than January 14, 2021, at 9 am sharp, 46 indigenous Pygmies, men, women, old people and children, slaughtered mercilessly by machetes.
Ethnic cleansing or, worse, genocide,
”he said.
For this defender of the pygmies, the thesis of the ADF attack does not hold up at all.
“
We know how ADF operates.
The motivations have never been territorial.
It is in a vision of the occupation of space.
They do not use weapons but in this attack weapons were used.
A well-organized artistic blur.
"
The provincial authorities dispatched a mixed mission to the village of Abembi, an area that is difficult to access.
At this stage, all the theses are plausible, from the very analysis of Adjio Gidi, Minister of the Interior of the province of Ituri.
“
Did the ADF want to settle in the locality and the pygmies would have been troublesome witnesses?
There are several hypotheses.
"
Of the forty bodies of the victims, only 36 were recovered, others were in a state of decomposition, according to the minister.
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