At least 20 people were killed earlier this week in an attack on a village in western Democratic Republic of Congo where a conflict has pitted two communities for five months, sources said on Wednesday (November 9). local.
This new killing, on the night of Monday to Tuesday, was reported in the village of Boku, located in the Kwamouth territory of the province of Mai-Ndombe.
“Deaths on both sides”
According to Nkete Mboma Butu, communications officer for Kwamouth civil society, the attackers were armed with guns and “the inhabitants defended themselves with machetes“. “There were deaths on both sides“, he indicated, estimating the total number of dead at 20. Jean Bosco Bulalwete, president of the provincial assembly of Mai-Ndombe, reported “heavy loss of human life and material“, without being able to specify the balance sheet.
But a provincial deputy, Moïse Makami Muzik, put the death toll at 35, deploring Tuesday in front of the press “indifference on the part of the central governmentin the face of the conflict between the Teke and Yaka communities since June.
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The violence started in Mai-Ndombe in June around a land dispute and has spread, in particular to the neighboring province of Kwilu, where a village attack last Wednesday left at least 16 people dead, according to provincial authorities. Last month, the Congolese government indicated that this conflict had made “more than 180 dead“.
The UN, for its part, estimated at several tens of thousands the number of displaced people, driven from their villages by these clashes between the Teke, who consider themselves to be natives and owners of the villages located along the Congo River over a distance of about 200 kilometers, and the Yaka, who came to settle after them.