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- On 11 April, 20 people were killed by assailants who looted homes and shops in Ituri province.
- Humanitarian organisations in Ituri have had to temporarily suspend their operations for security reasons.
- WFP has started distributing high-energy biscuits to some 6 500 civilians in North Kivu.
At least 60 people have been killed in the space of a week in Ituri, one of the 25 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), by assailants who looted homes and shops.
This was revealed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its midday briefing on 11 April, where it also revealed that 20 civilians had been killed on Monday.
OCHA relies on data presented to it by humanitarian sources that operate in the DRC.
"At least 20 civilians died this morning (11 April) following an armed attack in Mangusu, in Irumu territory. The assailants also looted homes and shops in the neighbouring towns of Bavonkutu and Bandiboli.
"Today's attack is the latest in a spate of deadly armed attacks in Irumu that have led to the loss of at least 40 civilian lives in the past week, according to local humanitarian sources. Other deadly attacks were recorded on 6, 8, and 10 April," OCHA said.
READ | At least 15 killed in DR Congo violence
The attacks forced locals to flee their homes and "the number of people displaced remains fluid with population movements continuing".
Because of the nature of violence in conflict areas in countries such as DRC and Ethiopia, aid organisation workers tend to be targets of the attacks.
As a result, those operating in Ituri and surrounding areas have halted operations.
OCHA said:
Various media reports on Ituri say an estimated 1.9 million people in the province are Internally Displaced People (IDP) because of violent attacks that are also directed at refugee camps for the IDPs.
Meanwhile, on 28 March, there were clashes between the Congolese army and the March 23 Movement (M23) armed group, creating a humanitarian crisis for close to 54 000 displaced civilians in the Rutshuru territory in North Kivu province.
M23 was formed by former soldiers in the Congolese army and named after the date peace accords were signed in 2009 between the government and the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a former rebel outfit.
The World Food Programme said in a statement that since the clashes, they had started distributing high-energy biscuits to some 6 500 civilians in North Kivu, and had also pre-positioned 30 tons of food for distribution.
Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has since distributed shelter and non-food items to about 2 500 people.
But, in a potentially positive development, M23 on Sunday announced that they were retreating from villages in Ituri because they wanted "a peaceful resolution of the crisis".
The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation. The stories produced through the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that may be contained herein do not reflect those of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
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