BUNIA, DR Congo: A militia attack killed at least 69 people in Ituri province in the conflict-torn northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local and security sources told AFP Sunday.
For more than 30 years the mineral-rich eastern DRC has been a battleground between various armed groups, vying for control of its many mines.
Two ethnic groups -- the Hema and the Lendu -- have been locked in a long-running violent conflict in Ituri, a gold-rich province that borders Uganda and South Sudan.
Armed men affiliated with the Codeco militia (Cooperative for the Development of Congo), which claims to protect the Lendu, carried out attacks in several villages on April 28, local and security sources told AFP, killing at least 69 people.
These attacks followed an earlier assault by another armed group, the Convention for the Popular Revolution (CRP) -- which says it fights for the Hema community -- on positions held by the Congolese army (FARDC) near the locality of Pimbo, they said.
More than 70 people were killed when Codeco fighters launched the retaliatory attacks in late April, civil society leader Dieudonne Losa told AFP.
On condition of anonymity, two other security sources confirmed the attacks, with one stating a death toll of at least 69, including 19 militia members and soldiers.
