Attack by ethnic militia kills 51 in northeastern DRC

Members of the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) killed 51 mostly displaced people in three adjoining areas of Ituri province on Monday, humanitarian sources and a local community leader, Jules Tsuba, said.

CODECO was a peaceful agricultural cooperative before transforming into an armed rebel movement fighting the rival Hema community.

"This is still a provisional figure because searches are still on. There have been 43 huts burnt and other victims have been burnt inside their huts," Tsuba said.

"There are dozens of wounded," he said of the attacks about 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of the Ituri capital Bunia.

The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo tried to intervent to prevent the killings, humanitarian sources said.

The mission refused comment when contacted by AFP.

Humanitarian sources said it appeared to be a revenge attack after a strike on Saturday by the Zaire militia representing the rival Hema community in the same area.

Gold-rich Ituri suffered a conflict between ethnic-based militias from 1999 to 2003 that killed thousands before the intervention of a European force.

Fighting flared again in 2017, including between CODECO and the Zaire militia, killing thousands of civilians and triggering mass displacement.