Ituri, RDC renewed violence in Ituri, DRC.

Renewed inter-communal violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern province of Ituri, resumed in this province on the Ugandan border. The United Nations Joint Human Rights office in the DRC published a report in January that this type of acts of violence, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population, may constitute crimes against humanity.

1. Aerial shots: Ituri province

2. Travelling shot: Driving into the Hema Internally Displaced camp in Bunia

3. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “We are alarmed by the worsening security situation in Djugu and Mahagi territories, where more than 150 people have been killed in the last 40 days in a series of attacks by Djugu-based perpetrators. The attackers are for the most part members of the CODECO armed group, most of whom are from the Lendu ethnic community.

4. Wide shot: Hema victim (women in the centre) speaking with UN human rights officer

5. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “In March alone, our Office recorded 107 civilians killed and 43 injured. So far in April, another 49 people have been killed, 13 wounded and six abducted. There are some more figures in the note. But the latest violence happened last Saturday when CODECO fighters attacked the village called Koli at night, killing 23 civilians just in that one village.”

6. Wide shot: Hema children in camp in Bunia

7. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Assaults on communities by these armed elements escalated significantly during March, with several gruesome assaults being reported. The attacks multiplied after the CODECO leader, Ngudjolo Duduko Justin, was killed on 25 March. And this reportedly triggered infighting for control of the group, which split into five factions, all carrying of which are carrying out attacks.”

8. Medium shot: Hema victim

9. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “It is important to note that leaders of the Lendu community the civilian leaders not the members of CODECO have mostly distanced themselves from the attackers.”

10. Medium shot: Hema women victim with amputated arm

11. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “The brutality of the attacks, with perpetrators using machetes to kill women and children, raping, looting property, destroying houses and killing livestock, suggests the aim is to inflict lasting trauma on the affected populations, forcing them to flee, and so gain control over the territory, which is rich in natural resources.”

12. Close up shot: Amputated limb of Hema women

13. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Despite the atrocities, the affected communities, mainly the Hema, but also the Alur, the Ndo Okebo and the Mambisa, generally shown restraint. However, we are worried that if the attacks continue without a

decisive response from the security forces to defend the civilian population, those communities may form self-defense militias, and that would increase the likelihood of an overall descent into all out inter-communal violence which would be absolutely catastrophic.”

14. Wide shot: Hema camp in Bunia

15. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “So we call on the authorities to strengthen the presence of security forces and state officials in the region, to ensure there are thorough investigations into all alleged abuses and human rights violations, to hold all perpetrators to account in fair and impartial trials and provide victims and their families with access to justice, truth and reparations.”

16. Various Hema camp