Inter-ethnic violence kills over a dozen

More than a dozen people have died since the weekend in fighting in southeastern Congo between Bantus and Pygmies, local activists said on Tuesday, in the latest escalation in a bloody three-year ethnic conflict. The Luba, a Bantu ethnic group, and the Twa, a Pygmy people who inhabit the Great Lakes region, have been in […]

More than a dozen people have died since the weekend in fighting in southeastern Congo between Bantus and Pygmies, local activists said on Tuesday, in the latest escalation in a bloody three-year ethnic conflict.
The Luba, a Bantu ethnic group, and the Twa, a Pygmy people who inhabit the Great Lakes region, have been in conflict since May 2013 in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Katanga region, known for its rich deposits of copper and other metals.
David Ngoy Luhaka, a local priest and member of the Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace, told Reuters that at least 16 people had been killed in fighting since Sunday and many houses were burned near the town of Kabalo, about 1,000 kilometers northwest of Congo’s mining hub of Lubumbashi.