Clashes between DR Congo’s armed forces and Mobodo paramilitaries have killed more than 40 people in the village of Kinsele, about 130 kilometers from the capital Kinshasa, sources there said on Sunday.

The death toll had yesterday “reached 42 paramilitary ‘Mobodos’, nine soldiers and one woman,” David Bishaka, MP for the Mai-Dobe province, to which the village of Kinsele is administratively affiliated, told Agence France-Presse.

“We are in the phase of collecting the corpses”, explained the politician, clarifying that the corpses of the soldiers “have already been taken to mortuaries in Kinshasa”, but “those of the paramilitary are still lying on the ground in Kinsele”.

An AFP source in the security forces in Mai-Dobe spoke of 41 dead and explained that the fighting broke out as violence has flared up in the area, on the outskirts of the capital, since July 10.

In 2022, conflicts between the Teke community, who are considered the rightful owners of land in villages along the Congo River, and the Yaka, who have moved there in recent years, turned into open conflict and massacres took place.

The Mobodo paramilitaries, who according to the authorities belong to the Yaka community, are said to be actively involved in the conflict, which has claimed hundreds of lives in both communities.

As of mid-2023, the state has banned the media from covering this conflict on the ground. Journalists, including AFP teams, are not allowed by security forces to even enter Mai Dobe province.

Accounts from the area where the clashes broke out are conflicting as to the circumstances.

Some accused the Mobodos of attacking an EDRC (armed forces of the DR Congo) position in Kinsele.

Others have accused the EDLR of carrying out clearance operations in recent days in retaliation for paramilitary incursions into Kinsale.

A civil servant in Kinsale said by phone, on condition of anonymity, that at around 05:00 (local time; 07:00 Greek time) on Saturday, mobondo “attacked the armed forces”, which they accuse of “taking the part of the Teke”.

He spoke of 70 dead in this attack.

UN experts estimated in December 2023 that “more than 1,000 fighters from Mai-Dobe and its environs, including Mobodos, were recruited, trained and sent to North Kivu to fight M23”, a Tutsi-dominated armed group which, in cooperation with the Rwandan army, has taken over vast areas in the eastern part of DR Congo.

“The absence of accountability for alleged perpetrators and instigators of crimes intensifies mistrust between communities and leads to new cycles of violence and reprisals,” the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) stressed in 2023 in a report on the conflict in Mai-Dobe Province.