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STORY: OHCHR / DRC VIOLENCE
TRT: 03:49
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 APRIL 2020 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE – OHCHR - MARCH 2020, BUNIA ITURI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
1.Aerial shot, Ituri province
2.Travelling shot, Driving into the Hema Internally Displaced camp in Bunia
17 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
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.
FILE – OHCHR - MARCH 2020, BUNIA ITURI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
4.Wide shot, Hema victim (women in the centre) speaking with UN human rights officer
17 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
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.”
FILE – OHCHR - MARCH 2020, BUNIA ITURI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
6.Wide shot, Hema children in camp in Bunia
17 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
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.”
FILE – OHCHR - MARCH 2020, BUNIA ITURI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
8. Med shot, Hema victim
17 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
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.”
FILE – OHCHR - MARCH 2020, BUNIA ITURI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
10.Med shot, Hema women victim with amputated arm
17 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
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.”
FILE – OHCHR - MARCH 2020, BUNIA ITURI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
12.Close up, Amputated limb of Hema women
17 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
13.SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“Despite the atrocities committed against 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.”
FILE – OHCHR - MARCH 2020, BUNIA ITURI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
14.Wide shot, Hema camp in Bunia
17 APRIL 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
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.”
FILE – OHCHR - MARCH 2020, BUNIA ITURI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
16.Various shots, Hema camp
Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today (17 Apr) briefed reporters on the renewed violence in Ituri of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Renewed inter-communal violence in DRC’s eastern province of Ituri, resumed in the province on the Ugandan border. The United Nations Joint Human Rights office in the DRC published a report in January noted 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.
Rupert Colville said, “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.”
He continued, “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.”
Inter-communal violence started between the Lendu, who are mostly farmers, and the Hema, herders and traders, resumed at the end of 2017 in this Ugandan border province, which is also coveted for its gold and oil on the shores of Lake Albert.
Colville said, “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.”
He also said, “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.”
The spokesperson noted, “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.”
Coville also said that “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.”
His office called 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.”
