More than a dozen people dead in eastern DRC violence

Attacks by militias across eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo leave over a dozen people dead since Friday, including six miners who were decapitated by CODECO group rebels, officials say.

Over 120 militias roam the country's east and there are frequent attacks on civilians. (Reuters Archive)

Violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has left more than a dozen people dead in three days, military and local sources said. Sunday's statement included two soldiers, who were among those killed since Friday. Over 120 militias roam the country's volatile east and there are frequent attacks on civilians. A military leader in North Kivu province said on Sunday: "We have just lost a brave soldier killed in an attack on our position in the northern outskirts of the city of Butembo by Mai-Mai militiamen". The leader, who did not wish to be named, said two members of the militia were killed. On Sunday in northeastern Ituri province "six gold miners were killed and decapitated by rebels from the CODECO group", Prince Kaleta, civil society president in Lodjo, Ituri said. READ MORE: DRC's Tshisekedi accuses Rwanda of backing M23 rebels [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv-W9qQfMSI[/embed] Deadliest militias CODECO, the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, is a political-religious sect that claims to represent the interests of the Lendu ethnic group. It is considered one of the deadliest militias, blamed for ethnic massacres in Ituri. Three civilians were "killed in an attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)" in North Kivu on Saturday night, said Flavien Kakule, head of a locality in the Bashu chiefdom, Beni territory. Daesh terror group claims the ADF as its regional affiliate. During protests against the United Nations in southern North Kivu on Friday and Saturday, "there was a death among the demonstrators, who carried bladed weapons and threw stones at a base of the Blue Helmets" in Kiwanja, Jason Ntawiha, mayor of the Rutshuru commune, said. A soldier who "had just killed a civilian in Kimoka" was "killed and lynched by the angry population", Saturday, commander of the Congolese Army regiment in Sake Colonel Philemon Kakule said. READ MORE: How Uganda has helped turn DRC’s vast gold reserves into a nightmare Source: AFP

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