GOMA (DRCongo), Sept 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A worker with the British charity World Vision has been killed in an ambush on a humanitarian convoy in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Congolese victim was killed in an attack on Wednesday in Lubero, North Kivu province, that left another worker seriously hurt, the aid group said in a statement.
“This devastating incident is an attack on our staff, and on the most vulnerable children and communities whom they were serving,” it said.
“Two of our staff were missing for over 18 hours but are now safely with the larger team awaiting evacuation. We’re thankful for community intervention to secure their release,” World Vision’s director in Congo Anne-Marie Connor said.
The incident was confirmed by Lubero’s chief administrator, Richard Nyembo, who said the ambush was carried out by so-called Mai-Mai, the term for self-described community defense groups, as the convoy was returning from a mission to distribute food. Two other aid workers were kidnapped, he said.
The east of the DR Congo, a vast country the size of continental western Europe, has been unstable for more than a quarter of a century, gripped firstly by full-blown regional wars and then by marauding militias.
Armed groups typically claiming to defend ethnic groups carry out attacks on civilians and kidnappings, often clashing with rivals over valuable mining resources.
North Kivu is a hotspot for attacks on aid workers, notably in the territories of Masisi, Lubero, Rutshuru, and Walikale. In 2018, two Congolese were killed in Rutshuru as they were working on a sanitation scheme for a local village.
Violence committed by a constellation of more than 100 armed groups has forced over half a million people in the eastern Congo to flee their homes since the start of the year. — NNN-AGENCIES
