More than 40 people were killed Friday in attacks on villages in eastern DR Congo, local sources said, blaming the CODECO militant group.
The group is accused of carrying out attacks in at least three villages in Ituri province, around 60 kilometres ( miles) from the provincial capital of Bunia.
CODECO, the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, is one of the myriad armed groups operating in the restive mineral-rich region.
The militia claims to protect the Lendu community from another ethnic group, the Hema, and the army.
“In Kilo Etat we found 36 bodies, in Matete eight, and for Itendy I don’t yet have a number,” a regional administrator, Innocent Matukadala, told AFP.
He said the CODECO militants had attacked at around 0500 GMT, with the DR Congo army responding around three hours later.
Robert Basiloko, a civil society leader in the same district, gave a provisional toll of 43 killed, including five children.
“Every day there are deaths, deaths — We’re tired of it,” he said.
Eastern Congo is plagued by dozens of armed groups, many of which are a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s.
Ituri province is one of the violence hotspots, where attacks claiming dozens of lives are routine.
