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Twenty-seven rebels, five civilians and one soldier died in a two-day military operation against a notorious armed group in eastern DR Congo, the army said on Tuesday.
The 27 CODECO militia members killed include “one of its main commanders, Malo-Maki,” said Lieutenant Jules Ngongo, army spokesman for the Ituri region.
“Among the civilian population, five people were killed and beheaded” by CODECO, while one soldier died in the fighting and a second was wounded, he said.
CODECO – the Cooperation for the Development of Congo – is an armed politico-religious sect that has been linked to more than 1,000 deaths since December 2017.
Experts say it includes various militia groups claiming to defend the Lendu ethnic group in Ituri, a gold-rich province on the border of Uganda and South Sudan.
The Lendu have been in a historic conflict with the Hema community – tens of thousands of people on both sides died in a savage war between 1999 and 2003.
These fighting ended thanks to an EU military mission, Operation Artemis.
But the bloodshed resumed in late 2017, starting in Djugu territory before spreading eastward to Irumu, Mahagi and Aru.
Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ituri province. By Valentina BRESCHI (AFP) Ngongo said the latest operation was launched on Sunday after CODECO attempted to cut off a strategic road, Highway 27, in the commercial town of Iga-Barrière, just 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the provincial capital. from Ituri, Bunia.
The troops managed to dislodge the militia from two strongholds, he said.
COEDECO is just one of some 122 armed groups roaming the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, many of which are a legacy of the wars of the 1990s that ravaged countries across central Africa.
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