 | This article may be excessively based on contemporary reporting.(March 2024) |
| Ndjala massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of Ituri conflict and Lendu-Hema conflict | |
| Location | Ndjala, Djugu territory, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Date | May 17, 2020 1am |
| Deaths | 22+ |
| Injured | 17+ |
| Perpetrator | CODECO |
On the night between May 16 and 17, 2020, militants from the Lendu CODECO killed twenty-two civilians in the Hema village of Ndjala, in Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Lendu farmers and Hema herders have been in conflict for centuries in Ituri, with both groups forming militias during the Second Congo War between 1999 and 2003. [1] Conflict renewed between the two groups in December 2017 in Djugu territory, with Lendu militias growing exponentially. The main Lendu militia, CODECO, began attacks against Congolese forces and other militias, and killing civilians across Ituri province. [1]
The attack began around 1am at the Hema village of Ndjala. [2] The attack targeted all Hema in the village, with many people being slashed by machetes. [2] A local administrator in Djugu territory, where Ndjala is located, stated at least twenty people were killed in the initial aftermath and over fourteen were injured. [2] [3] This rose to seventeen wounded, and twenty-two people killed by the next day. [4]
While no group initially claimed responsibility for the attack, CODECO was suspected due to the Lendu-Hema conflict. [5]
The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.
Ituri Province is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Ituri, Bas-Uele, Haut-Uele, and Tshopo provinces are the result of the subdividing of the former Orientale province. Ituri was formed from the Ituri district whose town of Bunia was elevated to capital city of the new province.
The Hema people or Bahema (plural) are an ethnic group of Nilotic origin who are concentrated in parts of Ituri Province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Ituri conflict is an ongoing low intensity asymmetrical conflict between the agriculturalist Lendu and pastoralist Hema ethnic groups in the Ituri region of the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While the two groups had fought since as early as 1972, the name 'Ituri conflict' refers to the period of intense violence between 1999 and 2003. Armed conflict continues to the present day.
Operation Artemis, formally European Union Force Democratic Republic of the Congo (EUFOR), was a short-term European Union-led UN-authorised military mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the Ituri conflict. ARTEMIS is considered the first military operation led by the EU, the first autonomous EU operation, the first rapid response mission of the EU, first operation outside Europe, first operation applying the principle of the framework nation and first example of "relay operation", conducted in cooperation between the EU and the United Nations. The deployment of EUFOR troops quickly decreased the conflict's intensity. It marked the first autonomous EU military mission outside Europe and an important milestone in development of the European Security and Defence Policy.
Congolese history in the 2000s has primarily revolved around the Second Congo War (1998–2003) and the empowerment of a transitional government.
The Front for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri is a Bunia-based armed militia and political party primarily active in the south of the Ituri Province of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The assault on Bogoro, which occurred on February 24, 2003, was an attack on the village of Bogoro in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI) and the Front for Patriotic Resistance of Ituri (FRPI). The attackers allegedly went on an "indiscriminate killing spree", killing at least 200 civilians, imprisoning survivors in a room filled with corpses, and sexually enslaving women and girls. Two rebel leaders, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, have been charged by the International Criminal Court with war crimes and crimes against humanity over their alleged role in planning the attack.
Mongbwalu is a small town in the Djugu Territory of the Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Allied Democratic Forces insurgency is an ongoing conflict waged by the Allied Democratic Forces in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the governments of those two countries and the MONUSCO. The insurgency began in 1996, intensifying in 2013, resulting in hundreds of deaths. The ADF is known to currently control a number of hidden camps which are home to about 2,000 people; in these camps, the ADF operates as a proto-state with "an internal security service, a prison, health clinics, and an orphanage" as well as schools for boys and girls.
The 2020 Democratic Republic of the Congo attacks were a series of attacks which took place in 2020. The attacks were mostly carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a radical Islamist rebel group and the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO), an agricultural and religious group made up of ethnic Lendu people. The attacks left at least 1,316 people dead and 132 injured.
CODECO is a loose association of various Lendu militia groups operating within the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The name is an abbreviation of the group's lesser-known full name, the Cooperative for Development of the Congo, sometimes also styled the Congo Economic Development Cooperative.
Attacks were carried out by various armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2021 and 2022. The attacks have killed 629 and injured 321. At least 82 perpetrators were also killed and one injured in these attacks.
Events in the year 2021 in the Republic of the Congo.
Drodro is a refugee camp in Djugu territory, located in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Djugu territory is a district of Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is also named Djugu.
On 2 February 2022, over 60 civilians from the Hema ethnic group were killed in a massacre in Djugu territory, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Events of the year 2022 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Events of the year 2023 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On January 19, 2023, the United Nations investigators discovered the bodies of forty-two civilians in the village of Nyamamba, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and seven bodies in the village of Mbogi, in the same province. The victims were killed over the weekend by suspected CODECO between January 14 and 15.