More than 40 people have been killed in an attack on a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to local officials and activists.
Richard Dheda, an official of the local administration for Bahema Badjere in Djugu territory in the DRC’s Ituri province, said the attack on Lala camp early on Monday was carried out by fighters belonging to a coalition of militia groups called the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO).
CODECO claims to protect the Lendu community from another ethnic group, the Hema, as well as the DRC’s army.
Much of eastern DRC is plagued by dozens of armed groups, a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s. The country has the largest population of IDPs in Africa, with the UN estimating at least 5.6 million have fled their homes due to fighting.
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