With the army of DR Congo in the forest fortress of killers

Ituri Storm: Name of an operation launched by the DRC armed forces in a northeastern province is against a militia accused of killing many civilians and forcing thousands to flee their homes.

A soldier crosses a village burned by the Ngoudjolo militia near Djugu, in the north-east of the troubled country. By John WESSELS (AFP / File)

An AFP photographer integrated into the Djugu district army found that nearly 70% of the villages he had crossed on a stretch of road along several tens of kilometers had been abandoned and many houses burned.

Map showing the province of Ituri in DR Congo, where officials claim that at least 160 people were killed during a month of violence. By Vincent LEFAI (AFP)

Ituri Storm – "Zaruba ya Ituri" – aims to lead the fight in the forest feud of a military-religious sect called the Congo Development Co-operative, or Codeco, recruited from among the Lendu, a community of peasants. ethnic farmers.

According to official figures that it is impossible to verify, the armed group killed more than 160 people in the province of Ituri alone in June and forced about 300,000 civilians to flee.

Troops cross an enemy position recently captured in the Wago Forest. By John WESSELS (AFP)

President Felix Tshisekedi condemned the killings as "attempted genocide" and "conspiracy".

But he insists that the violence is not a resurgence of intra-community conflict between Lendu and Hema pastors, whose quarrels erupted in blood in Ituri in 1999-2003.

"The first step was to annihilate them or, in any case, to mitigate their harmful effects.This has been done," said Tshisekedi, who gave a press conference in Bunia, in the province of 39; Ituri, 2 July.

"The defense forces will stay here until they are wiped out."

"Assbadins and criminals"

Thousands of people who fled the militia raids have taken refuge in the compound of a Catholic church in Drodro. By John WESSELS (AFP / File)

Thousands of displaced people, estimated between 7,000 and 15,000, fled to a church in Drodro.

Many other families have fled, sometimes to Bunia, tens of kilometers away, where some have reported great suffering.

"I was in a house with three children and my wife.The enemies came in the night.We slept.When I took two children, the other stayed in the house. killed this child, "Charite, a teacher, told AFP.

Inside the government base in Djugu. By John WESSELS (AFP)

Since Drodro, the military operation has spread to the heart of the Wago Forest, officially presented as the base camp for "murderers, murderers and criminals".

The heights offer breathtaking views of Lake Albert, a vast stretch of water 60 km long that marks part of the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

Closer to home, scattered rounds and mortar shells showed that the militia were heavily armed.

The soldiers were silent about the number of militia fighters killed or captured, but they feared that the enemy would have moved along the shores of Lake Albert to prepare new raids.

Early morning cold: a soldier warms near the fire near a base in Djugu. By John WESSELS (AFP)

After visiting the combat zone, AFP returned to Bunia and to both camps hosting several thousand displaced people. The Ebola and measles vaccination campaigns were due to start on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a humanitarian response is being built. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) plans to triple its badistance to displaced people in the province.