Over 2,000 Persons Killed in Three Provinces of DR. Congo in 2020 – UN

Over 2,000 civilians were killed in three provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2020. The deaths were mostly attributed to attacks from armed rebel groups operating in the country.

This was disclosed by the spokesperson of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Babar Baloch.

“In 2020, the partners of the UNHCR registered an unprecedented number of more than 2,000 civilians killed in the three provinces of the eastern DR Congo: 1,240 in Ituri, 590 in North Kivu and 261 in South Kivu.”

Baloch added that the organization was alarmed by “the atrocities committed by armed groups which are within a scheme of a systematic approach aimed at perturbing the lives of civilians, implanting fear and provoking chaos”

“The majority of these attacks have been attributed to armed groups. The murders and abductions have continued in North Kivu in 2021, where the attacks were also directed against displaced civilians,” the spokesperson revealed.

According to the UNHCR, at least seven incursions by armed groups were registered in five different sites in the territory of Masisi in North Kivu between December 2020 and January 2021.

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Over 88,000 internally displaced persons were living in 22 sites supported by the UNHCR, International Organization of Migration (IMC) and many others live spontaneous sites within the host communities.

The UNHCR accounted that the attacks carried out by armed groups are usually based on suspicion of collaboration by the population with other armed groups or with the security forces of DR Congo.

It added that civilians are sometimes caught in the middle of fighting between two armed groups.

Also, the armed groups reportedly occupied schools and houses forcefully, preventing schools from operating and attacked health centers in the territories of Mweso, Masisi and Lubero, the UN agency said.

In November 2020, the armed group also introduced illegal taxes on persons who wanted to go to their farms in their villages of origin within the Rutshuru territory.

The UNHCR disclosed that military operations by FACA against the militias “are always more successful now than in the past,” stressing that the security forces cannot maintain the zones they have secured.

More than five million persons have left their places of origin as a result of insecurity and violence in DR Congo in the last two years.

There were more than two million internally displaced persons in the sole province of North Kivu, UN estimated.