Fresh news reaching the desk of Africa Today News, New York has revealed that at least 33 people have been killed following a militia attack which had occured on a town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo raising an earlier reported death toll.
Kivu Security Tracker, the monitor who had reported the death toll and tweeted that at least 33 people most of whom are also including some of the militia members and civilians — had also died following an attack by the notorious CODECO militia on Mongbwalu in Ituri province.
Read Also: Congolese Badly Divided Over Burundi Troops In Troubled East
The report did not also specify how many of some the dead were civilians, however and the death toll raises an earlier reported death toll of 22 people killed during the attack on Mongbwalu town.
Town mayor Jean-Pierre Bikilisende earlier this week told AFP that 22 dead bodies were discovered following clashes between the militants and Congolese troops among which were fourteen civilians and eight militants were killed, he said, explaining that CODECO members had been staging attacks since Tuesday in a bid to free fellow fighters captured by Congolese security forces.
AFP was unable to independently confirm the death toll from this week’s attack.
In another report, the nature of deployment of several troops from Burundi to help bring under control several rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s east has left the local people in the area largely divided, with some fiercely opposed but others giving a cautious welcome.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that Burundian forces had on Monday began arriving in South Kivu province, while also going ahead to push ahead with a plan by the seven-nation East African Community (EAC) to stabilise the chronically troubled region.
Scores of armed groups roam the DRC’s east, many of them a legacy of full-blown wars that erupted in the final decade of the 20th century.
A considerable number of people in the area are sceptical that the Burundian deployment will improve security, but others hope for an improvement.