Highlights: Civilians were the target of a new attack in the province of Ituri in the east of the country this Monday, February 5. The toll put forward by civil society is at least 18 dead, mainly villagers who were going to their fields. This new massacre in the DRC was attributed to the ADF-Nalu, an armed group operating in the region. The latest massacre took place in several small isolated villages, a three-hour walk from the road linking Mambasa to Beni.

In the DRC, civilians were the target of a new attack in the province of Ituri in the east of the country this Monday, February 5. The toll put forward by civil society is at least 18 dead, mainly…

DRC: at least 18 dead after a new massacre in Ituri

In the DRC, civilians were the target of a new attack in the province of Ituri in the east of the country this Monday, February 5. The toll put forward by civil society is at least 18 dead, mainly villagers who were going to their fields.

A view of the Ituri region. (Drawing). AFP - ALEXIS HUGUET

By: RFI Follow

This new massacre in the

DRC

was attributed to the ADF-Nalu, an armed group operating in the region already responsible for numerous similar attacks in the area. The latest massacre took place in several small isolated villages, a three-hour walk from the road linking Mambasa to Beni, in the Babila Babombi chiefdom.

The alert launched by the villagers did not prevent new victims. “

When they leave the towns to go to their fields, they encounter their enemies and that is where, now, we are alerted by these same populations and we approach the authorities to check. But unfortunately, it is as soon as he arrives that the enemy does damage

,” Mandela Moïse, head of civil society in the chiefdom, explains to RFI.

Also read: In the north-east of the DRC, those forgotten by the bloody Ituri war

For Maître Jospin Paluku, another voice of civil society in Mambasa, all activities in the region are now threatened, he even fears a food crisis “

because it is the farmers who are being massacred

”. “

Now, it is the ADF who have invaded the fields and as a result, the harvested products from the fields are no longer on sale in the territory and when the farmers return, they will no longer find anything in their fields

,” believes he said before adding that farmers who were not victims of this recent attack “

fear to carry out their farming activity on a regular basis

”.

The search continues to find other victims, but also, she hopes, survivors who may have fled into the surrounding forest. Civil society warns that the results remain provisional.

This attack comes while a major military operation by the Congolese and Ugandan armies is underway in one of the territories of this province, that of Irumu. But this maneuver pushes the rebels back into the region, worries civil society in Mambasa.

This situation disgusts us. We are fed up. Not a week goes by without talk of the ADF.

00:54

Marie-Noël Anatone, head of civil society in Mambasa

Paulina Zidi

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DRC: at least 18 dead after a new massacre in Ituri

DRC: at least 18 dead after a new massacre in Ituri

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