NEWS– Local authorities have disclosed that at least 70 people, including nine soldiers and a soldier’s wife, were over the weekend killed when armed men attacked a village in western Democratic Republic of Congo as violence intensifies between two rival communities.
The attack took place on Saturday in the village of Kinsele, around 100 kilometers East of the Capital Kinshasa and just because of insecurity and poor infrastructure in the region, deadly attacks can take days to be reported.
Kinsele is in the Kwamouth territory, where for the past two years conflict has raged between two local communities, the Teke and Yaka leading to the deaths of hundreds of civilians and aa Congo battles armed groups in the east, violence has also intensified in the western part of the country.
Its reported that the attackers were members of the Mobondo militia, an armed group presenting itself as defenders of the Yaka people.
The Provincial Deputy Chief for the Kwamouth territory, David Bisaka told journalists in a phone interview, that by yesterday, 72 bodies had been found and the search for more bodies continues in the bush.
Bisaka said that security services on site had been directed to continue to search for the bodies after the army succeeded in chasing the Mabondo militia for the second time in a week.
The head of a nearby village, Stanys Liby, told the U.N.-funded Radio Okapi reporter that following Saturday’s attack, the bodies found included those of nine soldiers and one woman, the wife of a soldier.
According to the Advocacy Group, the Human Rights Watch, the conflict over land and customary claims in the Kwamouth territory erupted in June 2022 between natives and “non-native” communities over land rights and customary taxes who are the Teke, historical inhabitants of the region, and farmers from various other ethnic groups including the Yaka who settled near the River Congo more recently.
Despite a cease-fire agreed upon in April 2024 in the presence of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, clashes between the two communities have continued and even intensified in recent weeks, with the Congolese army failing to quell the violence.
The army is also struggling to contain the violence in the eastern part of the country, which has been torn by decadelong fighting between government forces and more than 120 armed groups seeking a share of the region’s gold and other resources.
Violence in the Eastern part of the country has worsened in recent months as security forces battle the militias and arlier this month, a militia attack on a gold mine in Northeastern Congo killed six Chinese miners and two Congolese Government soldiers.
Additional Reporting from Associated Press and Al Jazeera Africa.
