14 Killed In Machete Attack In DR Congo

Fourteen people, including seven children were killed with machetes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Aljazeera reports that the Red Cross said on Sunday that the attack took place in a displaced people’s camp in the country’s northwestern Ituri province.

Jean D’Zba Banju, a community leader in Ituri’s Djugu area, said the perpetrators belonged to the CODECO armed group, which has been blamed for a string of ethnic massacres in the area.

Banju said to the AFP News on Sunday; “CODECO militiamen entered Drakpa and started to cut people with machetes.

"They did not fire shots in order to operate calmly.”

“The victims are displaced people who had fled Ngotshi village to set up in Drakpa.”

The Ituri province has been plunged back into a cycle of violence since late 2017 with the rise of CODECO, which has since split into rival factions.

The CODECO group is a political-religious sect that claims to represent the interests of the Lendu ethnic group.

Ituri and neighbouring North Kivu have been under a state of siege since May 6, in a measure to combat armed groups including CODECO and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

The ISIL (ISIS) armed group bills the ADF as its local affiliate.