...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
, local sources and the army said on Monday.
Codeco gunnies carried out an attack on a fishermen's camp in Gobu, a landlocked area, Charité Banza, president of civil society in Bahema Nord, a chiefdom (administrative entity) in Ituri province, told AFP on Sunday.
The attack lasted "just over two hours and left at least fifteen people dead", he said, calling on the DRC's armed forces to be more responsive.
"These gunnies are neither attacked nor hunted down", deplored Mr Banza.
Nine civilians, one soldier and four Codeco gunnies were killed", said Pilo Mulindo, chief of the Bahema Nord chiefdom, giving a provisional corpse count for the time being.
Questioned by AFP, army front man Lieutenant Jules Ngongo also accused the Codeco of "attacking civilians who were praying on Sunday in their church in Gobu, on the shores of Lake Albert", which marks the border with Uganda.
"Our forces retaliated to this attack, and the gunnies are being pursued", he added, without giving any immediate figures.
Codeco (Coopérative pour le développement du Congo) is a militia of several thousand men that claims to protect the Lendu tribe from a rival tribe, the Hema, as well as from the DRC army.
Attacks by Codeco and other community militias are recurrent in Ituri, mainly north of Bunia, the province's capital. A week earlier, seven other people were killed in the same area, said Mr Banza.
After a decade of calm, the deadly conflict in Ituri between Hema and Lendu has resumed since the end of 2017, causing the deaths of thousands of civilians and the flight of more than one and a half million people, according to the UN.
The previous conflict between community militias caused thousands of deaths between 1999 and 2003, until the intervention of a European force, Operation Artemis, under French command.