On the evening of Thursday, September 1st, 2023, five agricultural workers who were members of the households in Ruvinga Groupment in Ituri Province were massacred by CODECO armed militias. Twenty-five people were also injured, seven were held hostage during the looting of their properties, and over 200 farmers from the Ruvinga Groupment were forced to flee their agricultural lands.
CODECO had previously committed another massacre in the fishing village of Musekere, which is part of the Sumbuso Groupement located in the chiefdom of Bahema Nord in the region of Djugu in the same Province. According to local sources, on August 21st six people, including a child and three women as well as two men in uniform, were reported killed. According to verifiable data from local civil society organizations in the region, the CODECO militia also seriously injured at least six more people, including farmers and fishermen and women.
In July of 2023 CODECO also killed at least 46 civilians, half of them children, in a raid on the Lala camp for displaced Hema people. Congolese soldiers and United Nations peacekeepers were apparently present in the nearby town of Bule, but did not intervene.
CODECO is part of a group of armed militias operating in the DRC, a country that has been involved in a long drawn out and extremely bloody armed conflict, known as the first and second Congo Wars, that has claimed the lives of six million people since the 1996. The CODECO group, initially founded as an agricultural cooperative, became an active militia in the Ituri Conflict – a period of intense violence that lasted from 1999 to 2003. The group has since undergone a number of transformations and despite involvement in various peace processes is still active.
Land is Life urges the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically the Ituri provincial Military government and the Mahagi territorial military administration, to take immediate action to ensure the safety and protection of the population residing in Mokambu Chiefdom. These individuals face significant threats to their lives as a result of the military actions of the CODECO group within the Mahagi territory.
Foto: CODECO fighters in Eastern DRC. humanglemedia.com