Ethnic Attack on Hutus in DR Congo lead to 25 Deaths

The Democratic Republic of Congo is in shambles after militiamen from the Nande ethnic group killed 25 civilians in the country’s volatile east, almost all of them hacked to death with machetes in a gruesome display of ethnic violence yesterday.

A local civil society activist whose group went to verify the attack, Hope Kubuya, said the latest aggression is going to escalate inter-ethnic dispute in the violence-torn region, Nation writes.

“This raid by the Mai-Mai Mazembe in the Hutu village will enflame the inter-ethnic conflict in the region,” he added.

“In total 25 people were killed, decapitated by machete by the Mai-Mai Mazembe in and around the village of Kyaghala,” Francis Bakundakabo, the local representative of the governor of North Kivu province, told AFP.

“All of these people were Hutu civilians,” he said, adding that the killings took place between 4:00 am and 8:00 am on Saturday morning.

The Mai-Mai are a “self-defence” militia who count members of DR Congo’s Nande, Hunde and Kobo communities among their ranks, pitting them against the Nyaturu group representing ethnic Hutus.

The Nande, Hunde and Kobo people of DRC largely regard Hutus as foreigners, a situation aggravated by the northern migration of Hutu farmers.

The last major ethnic violence to strike the volatile region came in December when at least 35 civilians were killed in clashes between fighters from the two groups.

Since December, the DRC’s political crisis has also worsened, with President Joseph Kabila refusing to step down despite his mandate coming to an end.