2024-01-13 16:09:16
The tents of the displaced at the Saint Gabriel parish in Kisangani
Four dead and more than five injured, this is the provisional toll of an armed attack perpetrated this Friday, January 12, 2024, against people displaced by an intercommunity conflict in Babusoko, a village located 6 kilometers downstream of the Congo River. , in Kisangani (Tshopo).
More than 2,400 displaced people have found refuge in the Saint Gabriel parish, in the town of Kisangani, commune of Mangobo, since November 5, 2023. The most courageous of them, following living conditions that have become increasingly difficult, are returning in the villages located on the banks of the Congo River to find food.
According to Father Gabriel Mbelia, priest of the parish where they are staying, “people are tired of helping them”. So, they are resorting to the fields they abandoned in November 2023 when their villages were burned.
This Thursday, January 11, they carried out the same exercise, before being surprised on Friday morning by armed men. They killed and injured with machetes and arrows, and burned some houses. Survivors attribute the attack to the Mbole.
One of the victims, Elie, who also alerted the others, claims to have seen 4 lifeless bodies. Father Gabriel spoke of an evolving assessment. He said 3 bodies are already at the Makiso General Hospital morgue.
“In the stampede, they did not know how to escape. Others remained, until then, the army has not yet arrived at the site of the attack so that they can be evacuated. I confirm that there are still injured people and perhaps cases of death in Babusoko,” he said.
These displaced people live in deplorable conditions in Saint Gabriel parish. They had fled the villages of Yalisombo, Batiamutengo, Babusoko and elsewhere following the conflict between the Mbole and the Lengola. They are mainly from the Kumu tribe who suffer attacks from the Mbole. The conflict is linked to a love story between a Mbole boy and a Kumu girl which was abruptly interrupted.
David Gaston Mukendi
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