The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has condemned a ''brutal attack'' on forcibly displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo by an armed group.
The UNHCR said Monday’s attack on a displaced people's camp in Ituri province left at least 45 people dead, including women and children.
At least 12 people were burned alive as their shelters were set ablaze during the attack, the UNHCR said in a statement.
“UNHCR deplores in the strongest terms these heinous attacks against vulnerable civilian populations,” said Valentin Tapsoba, the director of UNHCR’s regional bureau for Southern Africa.
“This cycle of violence must end. We are calling for collective efforts to pacify the conflict in Ituri province so that the Congolese people can return to their homes and their livelihoods and live in peace,” the UN's agency said.
The UN agency reiterated its call for all actors involved to respect the civilian and humanitarian nature of displacement sites and ensure the safety and well-being of displaced populations.
DRC is struggling to contain violence by various armed groups. No group said it carried out the latest attack at the Lala camp for displaced people in the chiefdom of Bahema Badjere in Ituri province, which borders Uganda and South Sudan.
But the chiefdom’s head, Jean-Richard Dheda said the raid was carried out by a rebel group known as the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO). The group has not yet commented publicly on the killings.
Fear gripped the displaced people as the attackers entered the camp with knives and firearms and assaulted people indiscriminately, forcing people to flee to a safe area.
''The preliminary death toll stands at 41, with many women and children among them. Seven more people were injured. They used knives and firearms to carry out the massacre," Dheda told Anadolu news agency earlier, adding the rebels also set fire to several shelters at the camp.
Dheda said that government forces stationed about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the camp intervened too late.
Following the attack, many residents fled the camp for safety to a secure area at the Bule trading center a few kilometers from the site of the attack, said the chiefdom’s head.
In February 2022, CODECO militiamen massacred more than 60 displaced people at the Plaine Savo site in the same chiefdom.
The group was once a peaceful agricultural movement, founded in the 1970s with roots in Ituri province's agriculturist Lendu communities.
The group, which the UN Security Council refers to as the "CODECO cult" because it performs a mix of Animist and Christian rituals, declared a unilateral cease-fire in August 2020 but then increased its attacks.
Since May 2021, the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu have been under "siege" where President Felix Tshisekedi replaced senior civilian officials in the state with army officers in a bid to curb the growing insecurity.
