Violence between herders, farmers leaves at least 161 dead in Congo past week

At least 161 people have been killed in a northeastern province of Congo in the past week, local officials said on Monday, in an apparent resurgence of ethnic clashes between farming and herding communities.

A series of attacks in Ituri province has mostly targeted Hema herders, who have long been in conflict with Lendu farmers over grazing rights and political representation, although the exact identity of the assailants remains murky.

Open conflict between Hema and Lendu from 1999-2007 resulted in an estimated 50,000 deaths in one of the bloodiest chapters of a civil war in eastern Congo that left millions dead from conflict, hunger and disease.

Tit-for-tat attacks between the two groups in late 2017 and early 2018 killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands more to flee their homes, but a tenuous calm had taken hold until this month.

Pascal Kakoraki Baguma, a national lawmaker from Ituri, said the latest violence was sparked by the killing last Monday of four Lendu businesspeople.

"Members of the Lendu community believed that these assassinations were the work of the Hema," Kakoraki said. "This is why they launched several attacks on Hema villages."

"Sources affirm that 161 bodies have been found so far. But the death toll goes beyond the bodies recovered, as there were other massacres of civilians and police officers," he said.

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Jean Bosco Lalo, president of civil society organizations in Ituri, said 200 bodies had been found since last week in predominantly Hema villages, including the 161 mentioned by Kakoraki. Lalo said the toll would rise once his teams gained access to other villages where killings had been reported.

Ituri Governor Jean Bamanisa said provincial authorities were still working to establish the exact death toll and declined to say who was responsible.

He said the assailants' tactics were to "empty out the villages, burn them and pursue those who had fled to the surrounding areas with bladed weapons."

Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, who took office in January, is trying to restore stability to the country's eastern borderlands, a tinderbox of conflict among armed groups over ethnicity, natural resources and political power.

Several rebel leaders have surrendered or been captured during his first months in office, but armed violence has persisted, particularly in North Kivu province, south of Ituri, which is the epicentre of a 10-month Ebola outbreak.