A UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) investigation into the Dominican Republic of Congo (DRC) has revealed that at least 701 people from the Hema and Lendu communities in the northeast province of Ituri, DRC, from December 2017 to September 2018, raising concerns of “crimes against humanity.
The report details the DRC’s security forces engaged in actions or arbitrary arrests, detentions, executions and sexual violence. The DRC has been actively deployed to this region in February 2018 but has not ceased the violence.
According to the UN, the majority of the women, at least 142 people, subject to sexual violence are from the “Hema community”. The UNHCR reports that approximately 57,000 people have been forced into exile and found shelter in Uganda whilst a further 556,000 have fled to Djugu and Mahagi.
The UN has stated that these attacks include acts such as beheading women and children as well as dismembering body parts to claim as trophies of war.
Read more at UN News here.
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