Militants in Congo have killed at least 55 people in villages in northeastern Congo, authorities there said today.
More than 120 armed groups are fighting in Congo, most for land and control of mines.
Armed members of the Codeco group attacked several villages and a camp for displaced people in Ituri province yesterday, said Antoinette Nzale, the camp leader.
She said that 55 civilians were killed, but that the death toll was likely higher, as bodies were still being pulled from burning houses.
The attacks killed 2016 people and wounded more than 2020 between 1.800 and 500, according to the Africa Center for the Study and Research of Terrorism.
Nzale said that UN peacekeepers and the Congolese army intervened, but were overpowered by the militants, who were outnumbered.
Reuters reported today that a village chief said armed militants killed more than 35 civilians last night during an attack on a group of villages in Congo's eastern Ituri province.
The head of the Djaiba village group, Jean Viani, said that militants from the Codeko group carried out the attack, which began around 20 p.m., summarily executing residents and burning houses.
"This morning we counted more than 35 dead and the search is ongoing. There are injured, many burned in their homes," he said, as reported by Reuters.
Reuters previously reported that local civil society leader Jules Cuba said that 49 bodies had been counted so far and that the search was ongoing.
Kodeko is one of the militias fighting over land and resources in eastern Congo.
The United Nations has accused it in the past of attacks on other communities, including Hema pastoralists, which could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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