Congo military kills 13 rebels in Ituri clashes

25/3/2018 7:00

        Congo's military said on
        Saturday it had killed 13 militiamen during clashes with an
        unidentified group after coming under attack in the country's
        volatile northeastern Ituri province.
        
        Ituri is the latest part of the Democratic Republic of Congo
        to descend into bloodshed since President Joseph Kabila's
        refusal to step aside at the end of his mandate in 2016
        undermined the legitimacy of the state.
        
        Army spokesman Jules Ngongo said clashes happened around the
        villages of Jemi and Penyi, in the Djugu territory. A Congolese
        soldier had also been killed, and two others wounded.
        
        "Search operations are still under way and the death toll
        could change," Ngongo said.
        
        Of all Congo's complex ethnic tinderboxes, Ituri has
        historically been the most combustible. It was one of the places
        where Congo's civil war began in 1998, drawing troops from
        Uganda and Rwanda into a five-year conflict in which about 5
        million people were killed, mostly from hunger and disease.
        
        Many fear Congo is headed for a repeat of that conflict.
        
        After more than a decade of relative peace, an eruption of
        tit-for-tat killing between the predominantly farming Lendu and
        the mostly cattle-keeping Hema ethnic groups this year has been
        fanned by a breakdown of government authority and the failure to
        resolve a longstanding dispute over land rights.
        
        The International Criminal Court has convicted warlords from
        both sides of the previous Ituri fighting, but that has not
        prevented further violence.