D.R. Congo Forces kill 31 Militia Fighters on Sunday

The Democratic Republic of Congo security forces killed 31 armed assailants in clashes around Lubumbashi, the country's second-largest city, a human rights group said Sunday, denouncing the action as human butchery.

 

March 13, 2020, Moroccan soldiers from the UN mission in DRC (Monusco) ride in a vehicle as they patrol in the violence-torn Djugu territory, Ituri province, eastern DRCongo. (AFP)

The NGO, Justicia, affirms that they also killed seven attackers and one police officer were also in Lubumbashi on Saturday. Meanwhile, 13 militiamen were killed in Likasi, nine in Kasumbalesa on the border with Zambia and two in Bunkeya, another town in region rich in cobalt.

While denouncing what it described as an "destabilisation attempt" by the attackers, Justicia also hit out at the army for "opening fire without warning" on the militiamen who were more lightly armed, some just carrying knives.

This, the group said, amounted to "human butchery".

Congolese police had said on Saturday that the militia men, loyal to former warlord Gedeon Kyungu Mutanga, were "forced back by police and the armed forces".

Mutanga had left his home in Lubumbashi during the fighting, police said, without specifying whether the residence had been placed under surveillance.