Renewed fighting between ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 160 people.

Nearly 40 villages were destroyed and more than 100,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the eastern province of Ituri during the past week.

Al Jazeera gained exclusive access to one of the villages that was attacked. Raheela Mahomed reports. </s> GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, April 26 (Reuters) - U nited Nations investigators have discovered five probable mass grave sites in eastern Congo's Ituri province where an outbreak of ethnic violence has killed at least 263 people, a U.N. peacekeeping mission said.

The report from the mission provides the most comprehensive portrait to date of the human cost of months of violence between Lendu pastoralists and Hema herders since December that has caused one of Africa's most serious refugee crises.

Violence across eastern Congo's borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi has spiked since President Joseph Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate in 2016, eroding state authority and emboldening armed groups.

The mostly Lendu-led attacks have forced more than 60,000 people to flee across Lake Albert into Uganda, and the U.N. refugee agency expects 200,000 refugees to reach Uganda this year. Tens of thousands of others have fled to other towns inside Congo.

The investigators did not provide details about the suspected mass graves, but said that about 120 towns and villages were pillaged and destroyed between December and mid-March.

According to Hema refugees Reuters interviewed last month in Uganda, Lendu groups typically attack Hema villages shortly after dusk with guns, machetes, axes and bows and arrows.

The precise motives for the attacks are difficult to pin down but tensions between the two communities have long been stoked by disagreements over cattle grazing rights, crops, gold mining and political representation.

Open warfare between the two communities from 1999-2007 is estimated to have killed some 50,000 people in one of the bloodiest chapters of a civil war in eastern Congo that left millions dead from conflict, hunger and disease.

Aid agencies say the crisis is a "mega-disaster" and are trying to raise over $2 billion to respond but Congo's government has accused them of exaggerating the situation and boycotted a recent donor conference. </s> At least 34 civilians were killed Sunday in ethnic violence in restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities said.

"The provisional toll is 34 civilians killed," said local official Joy Bekele, referring to the attack by a Nance ethnicity militia on the Hutu village of Langa.

"They started by attacking the FARDC (DR Congo military) position. While they were attacking the FARDC, another group was executing the population with bladed weapons or bullets," Ms Bekele said.

He added that the attack was carried out by a Nance militia group and that one of the attackers was killed in the clashes.

Tension between the Nance and Hutu peoples have been high in the restive east, shaken by two decades of fighting over land, ethnic tensions and mineral riches. </s> The Red Cross in Central African Republic says at least 115 people have been killed and more than 50 injured in several days of attacks in the southeastern town of Bangassou.

Local Red Cross official Antoine Mbao-Bogo said Wednesday that 37 bodies have been buried and funerals continue. Hundreds of militia fighters from a predominantly Christian group known as the anti-Balaka attacked the town and the United Nations peacekeeping base there over the weekend.

The U.N. mission says tensions have reached the northern town of Bria, where fighting Tuesday between mostly Muslim Seleka rebels and anti-Balaka has killed at least five and injured 29. Peacekeepers have intervened to separate the groups.

A series of attacks in remote areas this past week have forced more than 15,000 people from their homes. </s> GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo - United Nations investigators have discovered five probable mass grave sites in eastern Congo’s Ituri province where an outbreak of ethnic violence has killed at least 263 people, a UN peacekeeping mission said.

The report from the mission provides the most comprehensive portrait to date of the human cost of months of violence between Lendu pastoralists and Hema herders since December that has caused one of Africa’s most serious refugee crises.

Violence across eastern Congo’s borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi has spiked since President Joseph Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate in 2016, eroding state authority and emboldening armed groups.

The mostly Lendu-led attacks have forced more than 60,000 people to flee across Lake Albert into Uganda, and the UN refugee agency expects 200,000 refugees to reach Uganda this year. Tens of thousands of others have fled to other towns inside Congo.

The investigators did not provide details about the suspected mass graves, but said that about 120 towns and villages were pillaged and destroyed between December and mid-March.

According to Hema refugees Reuters interviewed last month in Uganda, Lendu groups typically attack Hema villages shortly after dusk with guns, machetes, axes and bows and arrows.

The precise motives for the attacks are difficult to pin down but tensions between the two communities have long been stoked by disagreements over cattle grazing rights, crops, gold mining and political representation.

Open warfare between the two communities from 1999-2007 is estimated to have killed some 50,000 people in one of the bloodiest chapters of a civil war in eastern Congo that left millions dead from conflict, hunger and disease.

Aid agencies say the crisis is a “mega-disaster” and are trying to raise over $2 billion to respond but Congo’s government has accused them of exaggerating the situation and boycotted a recent donor conference. </s> GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - United Nations investigators have discovered five probable mass grave sites in eastern Congo’s Ituri province where an outbreak of ethnic violence has killed at least 263 people, a U.N. peacekeeping mission said.

The report from the mission provides the most comprehensive portrait to date of the human cost of months of violence between Lendu pastoralists and Hema herders since December that has caused one of Africa’s most serious refugee crises.

Violence across eastern Congo’s borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi has spiked since President Joseph Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate in 2016, eroding state authority and emboldening armed groups.

The mostly Lendu-led attacks have forced more than 60,000 people to flee across Lake Albert into Uganda, and the U.N. refugee agency expects 200,000 refugees to reach Uganda this year. Tens of thousands of others have fled to other towns inside Congo.

The investigators did not provide details about the suspected mass graves, but said that about 120 towns and villages were pillaged and destroyed between December and mid-March.

According to Hema refugees Reuters interviewed last month in Uganda, Lendu groups typically attack Hema villages shortly after dusk with guns, machetes, axes and bows and arrows. [nL1N1R20YN]

The precise motives for the attacks are difficult to pin down but tensions between the two communities have long been stoked by disagreements over cattle grazing rights, crops, gold mining and political representation.

Open warfare between the two communities from 1999-2007 is estimated to have killed some 50,000 people in one of the bloodiest chapters of a civil war in eastern Congo that left millions dead from conflict, hunger and disease.

Aid agencies say the crisis is a “mega-disaster” and are trying to raise over $2 billion to respond but Congo’s government has accused them of exaggerating the situation and boycotted a recent donor conference. [nL8N1RQ2TH] </s> GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Ethnic clashes between Hema herders and Lendu farmers in the northeastern province of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo have killed more than 40 people, local officials said Friday.

Tensions between the groups have been largely dormant since their battles from 1998 to 2003 left thousands of people dead, but violence has flared again in recent months because of disputes over land.

At least 30 people were killed in two days of clashes last month between armed Hema and Lendu.

Militia activity has increased across eastern Congo’s borderlands near Uganda and Rwanda in the past year, stoked in part by President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down in December 2016 as required by the Constitution.

Alfred Ndrabu, a member of the Roman Catholic Church’s Justice and Peace Commission in Ituri, said a colleague in the village of Maze had counted 49 bodies from Thursday’s clashes, which continued into Friday morning.

“The Lendu and their allies attacked the village of Maze,” Mr. Ndrabu said. “They were pushed back by security forces.”

“They returned with reinforcements,” he said, “which was when they perpetrated the carnage.”

Jean-Bosco Lalo, an activist based in the provincial capital, Bunia, said his organization had so far recorded 43 deaths. He did not say who had initiated the violence. </s> At least 34 civilians were killed on Sunday in a flare up of ethnic violence in restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities said, following a week of soaring tensions.

“The provisional toll is 34 civilians killed,” said local official Joy Bokele, referring to an attack by a Nande ethnicity militia on the Hutu village of Luhanga.

“They started by attacking the FARDC (DR Congo military) position. While they were attacking the FARDC, another group was executing the population with bladed weapons or bullets,” Bokele said.

Bokele added that the attack was carried out by a Nande militia group and that one of the attackers was killed in the clashes. Tensions between the Nande and Hutu peoples have been running high in the restive east, shaken by two decades of fighting over land, ethnic tensions and mineral riches.

The Nande accuse Congolese Hutus of abetting the FDLR Rwandan rebel group. The Hutus, in return, say they are looking for land where they can settle for farming and accuse the Nande of trying to expel them.

Sunday’s killings are the worst inter-communal violence in a year. Dozens of people have died since the start of the year in fighting between the Nande and the Hutus.

“If the army had not intervened, there would have been many more dead,” said a military source.

It is thought that the attack on the Hutu village was carried out by the Mai-Mai Mazembe, a Nande “self-defence” militia. “The militia was searching for members of the Hutu community and wreaked carnage before burning down the village entirely,” said a local rights group, the Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO).

The group called on the government and the UN’s MONUSCO peacekeeping force in the country to take urgent action to prevent further ethnic violence.

“The Mai-Mai Mazembe made threats against the Hutus during the week, demanding that they leave the area or risk a purge,” CEPADHO added in a statement.

North Kivu has been the scene of repeated clashes for nearly two decades, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. </s> A fresh flare-up of ethnic violence has claimed the lives of at least 49 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ituri province.

The murders took place overnight in the village of Maze, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Bunia, the capital of the northeastern province of Ituri, which has been wracked by conflict between the Hema and Lendu communities, the government said on Friday.

Alfred Ndrabu Buju from international Catholic charity Caritas said, "We have counted 49 bodies and are still searching for other bodies."

"A child was admitted this morning in Drodro general hospital, with an arrow in his head," Buju added.

Interior Minister Henri Mova earlier said 33 were killed in the unrest.

"The provincial governor is on his way to the site of the killings," Mova said.

Witnesses said the assailants were members of the Lendu community.

"The attackers went into the village and committed a real massacre," said local activist Banza Charite.

More than 100 people have been killed since the violence erupted in Ituri in mid-December. The unrest has also forced 200,000 people to flee their homes.

More than 28,000 of the displaced have crossed the border into Uganda in recent weeks, according to UN figures, most of them women and children, reporting horrific stories of violence.

Tensions between the Hema cattle herders and Lendu farmers have largely laid dormant since a 1998-2003 war, which claimed the lives of thousands, but have flared again in recent months because of disputes over land.

The United Nations said earlier this year it would seek more than $1.5 billion to respond to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, warning the violence-torn country was at a "breaking point."
In the past week, over 160 people have been killed and 40 villages destroyed in attacks between tribes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.