“Citizens were burned alive in their homes, others were slaughtered with machetes,” said Joseph Lotoma, a local official in the area where the attacked village of Aleza is located.
Twelve people, including five children, were killed on Friday in a village in Ituri province in northeastern DR Congo by unknown assailants suspected of belonging to a paramilitary group absent from recent peace talks in Nairobi, local authorities said.
“Citizens were burned alive in their homes, others were slaughtered with machetes,” said Joseph Lotoma, a local official in the area where the attacked village of Aleza is located.
The massacre was committed at night. In the morning, the bodies of five children, three women and four men were found, he explained.
The victims belonged “in their majority” to the Ledu tribe, said a representative of this community, Jean-Marie Djaza.
According to Mr. Lotoma, “the perpetrators of the crime are therefore not the organization CODECO” (s.s. Coopérative pour le développement du Congo, “Cooperative for the Development of the Congo”), which says it defends the Ledu tribe and has been blamed for many massacres of civilians in the province.
Investigations are ongoing, he added, but the attackers are likely members of Zaire, a rival paramilitary group that says it is defending the Hema tribe.
CODECO took part in the recent peace talks with the DR Congo government in Kenya, as did several of the dozens of armed organizations operating in the eastern part of the country. But Zaire was not represented, he declined the invitation.
The representative of the Ledos community expressed the concern that CODECO will proceed with retaliation. “We call on CODECO leaders not to fall into the trap of their enemies, not to respond to this challenge,” he said.
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