Congo

In northeastern Congo, United Nations soldiers have discovered two mass graves containing the bodies of 49 people. The graves were found in Ituri province, a UN spokesman said.

According to the organization, rebels from the armed group Codeco carried out attacks on civilians in that region last weekend. After soldiers from the UN peacekeeping mission received reports about this, they went on patrol in the area. “That was when they made the gruesome discovery,” said the UN spokesman.

The mass graves were found in two villages about thirty kilometers from the provincial capital of Bunia. In one grave, UN soldiers found 42 victims, including twelve women and six children. In the other tomb lay the bodies of seven men.

Various armed groups are active under the banner of Codeco, an abbreviation for ‘cooperative for the development of Congo’. Especially in the province of Ituri, they regularly attack civilians.

According to the UN, although seven Codeco militias announced last June that they wanted to end the violence in the northeastern province, more attacks have recently been reported. At least 195 civilians have been killed since December. More than 1.5 million residents of the province have been displaced by the recent attacks, the UN says.

It was also restless elsewhere in Congo. In Goma, a major city in the northeast of the country, police have used tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

The demonstrators demanded that the Congolese government hold the so-called M23 group to an agreement the government made with the violent militia in November. It was then agreed that the M23 rebels would withdraw from areas in eastern Congo that they had occupied, but that has not yet happened.

The M23 militia, originally set up to protect people from the Tutsi community against Hutu militias, was defeated by the Congolese army in 2013. The violent group has been active in the country again for more than a year.