Eleven civilians were killed by militiamen on Tuesday in the west of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a region beset by communal conflict, local officials said.
“They killed 11 people, including three women” during the night in the village of Fadiaka, in Kwamouth territory, local MP Guy Musomo told AFP, blaming “mobondo” militiamen for the killings.
Disputes over land can frequently turn deadly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a vast but impoverished central African country of about 100 million people.
In the west of the country, violence broke out in 2022 between the Teke, who consider themselves to be the owners of villages along the Congo River, and the Yaka people, who came and settled in the area after them.
Considered members of the Yaka community, the “mobondo” are accused of playing an active part in the violence, which has left hundreds dead.
The militiamen, armed with machetes and rifles, “went to massacre the population of Fadiaka when they saw that the soldiers had left for an operation” in another area, Musomo said of Tuesday’s violence.
Garry Sakata, a member of parliament for the neighboring territory of Bagata, gave the same assessment and called on the authorities to “take urgent measures to impose peace” in the region.
Another local official spoke of eight dead in Fadiaka.
Due to security problems, the general election in December could not be held in Kwamouth, as well as two territories in eastern DR Congo.
