At least 60 dead in attack on camp for displaced people

KINSHASA, CONGO >> The families had fled their homes and farms to escape attacks by marauding militants, taking refuge in a makeshift camp for displaced people in eastern Congo.

But a militia found them anyway as they slept in the white tents of the Plaine Savo camp in Ituri province Tuesday night, shooting and hacking to death at least 60 people — many of them women and children.

The heinous act of violence shook Africa’s second-largest nation, where a surge of attacks has left communities displaced, devastated and in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

The assault was one of the biggest in almost a year to hit the country’s restive eastern region, which is beset by poor governance, weak security and rampant corruption. More than 120 armed groups operate in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, according to the Kivu Security Tracker, which records violence and human rights violations in eastern Congo.

Ndalo Budz, who works for Caritas Congo and manages the camp that was attacked Tuesday night, said that besides those killed, more than 50 people were injured, some severely. The fatalities included at least 16 children and nine women, according to Pierre Boisselet, the coordinator of the Kivu Security Tracker.

Videos from eyewitnesses, some shared on social media, showed crowds wailing over the bodies of their loved ones, many of them with what appeared to be deep cuts on their heads and necks.

Lt. Jules Ngongo, the Congolese army spokesperson in Ituri, said the Cooperative for Development of Congo militia, known locally as CODECO, was responsible for the attack. He said the army was deployed to the camp after the attack “to restore order, and we are chasing the enemy.”

Peacekeepers from the United Nations exchanged fire with the attackers and later conducted joint operations with Congolese forces to secure the area, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, in a news briefing Wednesday. Delivery of humanitarian assistance to the area remained limited, he said.