Civilian death toll exceeds 80 after east DRC militia attack, says UN mission

More than 80 civilians were killed in a late night attack by the armed group Codeco on a cluster of villages in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) earlier this week, UN peacekeeping mission Monusco said on Thursday.

The new death toll exceeds a previous estimate of at least 51 people killed, which local authorities shared immediately after the attack on Monday in Djugu territory, Ituri province.

Monusco said it had deployed peacekeepers to counter the assault as quickly as possible, but said the militants' use of bladed weapons rather than loud firearms delayed its response.

Once the peacekeepers were on the ground, the group “had killed more than 80 civilians, set homes ablaze and spread panic among the population,” the mission said.

Codeco is one of myriad militias fighting over land and resources in eastern DRC. It has frequently targeted displacement camps, which have ballooned since recent advances by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

M23 has been inching south since it seized eastern DRC's largest city Goma at the end of last month, with 3,000 people killed in the days preceding the city's capture, according to UN figures. Their advance from North Kivu province into South Kivu threatens to trigger a humanitarian catastrophe, local officials said.