Arrests over DRC ethnic violence that killed 890 in Dec. 2018

Arrests have been made in connection with intercommunal violence that rocked western part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, in December last year.

The Congolese army reported having arrested 15 people believed to be complicit in the violence that killed close to 900 people according to the United Nations.

The violence led to the cancellation of polls especially for the town of Yumbi. The UN human rights outfit officially confirmed the number of deaths in mid-January.

Fighting in Mai-Ndombe province, a normally peaceful area in years erupted with days to long delayed polls forcing the elections body, CENI, to postpone the vote there.

CENI also suspended voting for the towns of Beni and Butembo – known opposition strongholds. The three areas are expected to take their turn in voting in March.

The fighting between the Batende and Banunu ethnic groups broke out over the disputed location of a Banunu chief’s burial, said Jules Bango, an activist in the town of Yumbi, on the banks of the Congo River.

“Today we have identified almost 120 deaths, and there are 71 others wounded in the hospital,” Bango told Reuters at the time. Many people also fled across the river into neighbouring Congo Republic, he added.