Posted by Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that armed men killed at least 20 people in the western Democratic Republic of the Congo this week in an ethnic war that has cost hundreds of lives.
According to the rights monitor, members from the Mobondo militia assaulted a truck transporting Teke ethnic traders on Monday.
They set fire to the bus at a community in the Kwamouth district of Mai-Ndombe, northeast of Kinshasa.
“In June 2022, a conflict over land and customary claims erupted between so-called ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ communities; hundreds have been killed,” the New York-based organization stated.
“The simmering conflict erupted into widespread violence after many farmers, primarily Yaka, rejected an increase in customary royalties proposed by ‘native’ Teke chiefs,” HRW stated.Teke villages have been targeted with machetes, spears, hunting rifles, and military assault weapons by groups calling themselves ‘Mobondo’ after magical amulets and mostly recruited among the ‘non-native’ Yaka, Suku, Mbala, Ndinga, and Songo populations.”
It went on to say that thousands of people had abandoned their houses, resulting in a humanitarian disaster.