Bloody and indiscriminate violence continues to plague the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Twenty civilians were killed on Saturday, March 18, in two separate attacks in this part of the country, plagued for nearly thirty years by violence from dozens of armed groups.

In the province of Ituri, the Codeco militia (Cooperative for the development of Congo), which claims to protect the Lendu tribe against the Hema tribe, is accused of having attacked, on Saturday morning, five villages in the territory of Mahagi. “So far we have counted fifteen dead, mostly women, children and old people,” Arnold Lokwa, head of the “chieftaincy” told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday ( cluster of villages) of Panduru.

In the neighboring province of North Kivu, it is the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) rebels, affiliated with the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), who are accused of having killed at least nine people in the village of Nguli, in the territory of Lubero. The victims “were killed with bladed weapons, machetes and knives”, a tenth person was seriously injured and “two children are missing”, village chief Kambale Kamboso told AFP on Sunday. .

IS claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday. “On Saturday, ISIS fighters launched an armed attack on the village of Nguli,” in North Kivu, according to a statement released by its propaganda outlet, Amaq. Originally mainly Muslim Ugandan rebels, the ADF have been rooted since the mid-1990s in eastern DRC, where they are accused of having massacred thousands of civilians.

Ceasefire broken

In the same province of North Kivu, but further south, fighting also resumed on Saturday between the army and the rebels of the M23 in the territory of Masisi, after a few days of calm. In a statement, the army accused the rebellion of attacking at least six of its positions and of committing “recurrent violations of the ceasefire”.

Residents interviewed by telephone reported fighting in the evening in Bihambwe, not far from the mining town of Rubaya. This whole area is located northwest of the provincial capital, Goma.

The M23 (“March 23 Movement”) is a predominantly Tutsi rebellion – backed by Rwanda, according to Kinshasa and UN experts – that has seized large swathes of North Kivu territory for the past year.

After several announcements of cessation of hostilities not followed up, a ceasefire should have intervened on March 7 but was not respected either. The fighting, however, stopped a few days this week, while the M23 withdrew from villages where Burundian soldiers from the force sent to the region by the Community of East African States (EAC) were deployed.