UN Blue Helmets have discovered mass graves in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) containing the bodies of nearly 50 civilians, including women and children.
The graves were found in an area where attacks by armed groups were taking place, a United Nations spokesman said Wednesday.
UN officials reported that mass graves containing the bodies of 42 civilians, including 12 women and six children, were discovered in the village of Nyamamba, said Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General. Another grave containing the bodies of seven men was found in the village of Mbogi.
“Peacekeepers launched a patrol to the area immediately after receiving reports of attacks on civilians by the CODECO militias over the weekend. This is when they made the gruesome discoveries,” Haq said in New York.
Codeco is a militia of several thousand men who claim to protect the Lendu ethnic group from the Hema community and the national army.
The investigation will seek to determine whether the mass graves are the result of the attacks, Haq said.
The two villages are in Ituri, a province bordering Uganda that has seen repeated attacks on civilians by local militias, including last week, when dozens of people were killed in such attacks.
