Following a string of attacks that were attributed to a local armed group, peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo found mass graves containing the remains of 49 civilians.
The graves were discovered in two villages in northeastern Ituri province, roughly 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of the town of Bunia, according to Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN, who made the announcement to reporters in New York on Wednesday.
He claimed that the dead of seven more males were found in the village of Mbogi, while the bodies of a total of 42 victims, including six children, were buried in a mass grave in the village of Nyamamba.
“As soon as peacekeepers learned that the CODECO militias had been attacking people over the weekend, they sent a patrol to the region. The Cooperative for the Development of Congo, an armed organization, “made the horrifying discovery at this time,” he claimed.
According to Haq, the UN is requesting a probe to determine whether the mass graves and the assaults were connected.
He continued by saying that the MONUSCO UN regional peacekeeping mission was “helping the Congolese judicial system to investigate the attacks” and demanded that “the criminals be brought to justice.”
After the murder of a teacher from the Lendu community sparked retaliatory attacks by CODECO, which claims to represent the ethnic group, Ituri, a restive province bordering Uganda, has experienced a surge of violence in recent weeks.
The teacher’s death was attributed by CODECO to a competing militia known as Zaire, which claims to represent the Hema ethnic minority.
A long-running conflict between the Lendu and Hema villages resulted in thousands of fatalities between 1999 and 2003 until a European peacekeeping force intervened.
On Wednesday, Haq issued a warning about a “severe deterioration of the security situation” in Ituri, claiming that since December, attacks by the CODECO and Zaire militias have resulted in at least 195 civilian deaths, 68 injuries, and 84 kidnappings.
The war has also caused the displacement of more than 1.5 million people in the Ituri province, he continued.
