14 killed in attack on southwestern DR Congo village
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Adelard Nkisi, a spokesperson for the Kwango regional government, stated that the deceased in Ipongi were slain by gunfire and "machete blows."
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Red Cross volunteers bury the remains of civilians killed in the DR Congo North Kivu province of Mukondi on March 9, 2023. (AP)
According to authorities on Saturday, at least 14 people were murdered in an attack on a community in the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo near the Angolan border.
Adelard Nkisi, a spokesperson for the Kwango regional government, stated that the deceased in Ipongi were slain by gunfire and "machete blows."
A religious leader verified the death toll and claimed the attack on Friday was in response to the recent detention of militiamen, who dispatched another team to "free four members" of their organization.
Symphorien Kwengo, a civil society leader in Kwango province, accused the armed Mobondo movement, which was founded last year in neighboring Mai-Ndombe province, of carrying out the crime.
The provincial spokesperson said measures were being made "to try to bring the situation under control."
A land dispute between the Teke people and those not originating from the area sparked conflict in Mai-Ndombe province in June 2022.
Fighting expanded to neighboring provinces, including Kwango, Kwilu, and Kinshasa.
The UN believes that around 3,000 people were murdered in the war between June 2022 and July 2023. The DRC government, however, sets the death toll at 180, a statistic that has remained constant since October 2022.
As for the East of Congo, it 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 eastern DR Congo's violence hotspots, where attacks claiming dozens of lives are common.
According to AFP, the CODECO militia, or Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, claims to protect the Lendu community from another ethnic group, the Hema, as well as the DR Congo army.
In June, militants killed seven people, and CODECO militants assaulted an army post in the Djukoth district of Ituri province's Mahagi territory.
