At Least 70 People Killed in a Militia Attack in Western Congo

AP 

Tuesday 16 Jul 2024

At least 70 people, including nine soldiers and a soldier's wife, were killed when armed men attacked a village in western Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities said, as violence intensifies between two rival communities.

The attack took place on Saturday in the village of Kinsele, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Kinshasa, the capital. Because of insecurity and poor infrastructure in the region, deadly attacks can take days to be reported.

Kinsele is located in the Kwamouth territory, where for the past two years conflict has raged between two local communities, Teke and Yaka, leading to deaths of hundreds of civilians.

As Congo battles armed groups in the east, violence has also intensified in the western part of the country.

The attackers were members of the Mobondo militia, an armed group presenting itself as defenders of the Yaka people.

“As of this morning (Monday, July 15), 72 bodies have already been found and the search continues to find other bodies in the bush,” David Bisaka, the provincial deputy for the Kwamouth territory, told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Security services on site continue to search for the bodies “after the army succeeded in routing this militia” for the second time in a week, Bisaka said. The Mobondo militia first tried to attack the same village on Friday.

Following Saturday’s attack, the bodies found included those of nine soldiers and one woman, the wife of a soldier, the head of a nearby village, Stanys Liby, told the UN-funded Radio Okapi.

The conflict over land and customary claims in the Kwamouth territory erupted in June 2022 between so-called “native” and “non-native” communities, according to the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

Tensions flared in June 2022 over land rights and customary taxes between the Teke, historical inhabitants of the region, and farmers from various other ethnic groups including the Yaka, who settled near the Congo River more recently.

Despite a cease-fire agreed in April 2024 in the presence of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi, clashes between the two communities have continued, and even intensified in recent weeks, with the Congolese army failing to quell the violence.

The army is also struggling to contain the violence in the eastern part of the country, which has been torn by decadelong fighting between government forces and more than 120 armed groups seeking a share of the region’s gold and other resources.

Violence in the eastern part of the country has worsened in recent months as security forces battle the militias. Earlier this month, a militia attack on a gold mine in northeastern Congo killed six Chinese miners and two Congolese soldiers.