On Monday, June 12, an armed group carried out a devastating attack on the LALA camp for displaced persons in the Democratic Republic of Congo, resulting in the tragic loss of at least 40 lives.
Richard Dheda, an official from the local administration of Bahema Badjere in Ituri province, has attributed the killings to the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO) group.
CODECO is one of several militias operating in the conflict-ridden eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The targeted camp is situated just 3 miles away from Bule, where a United Nations peacekeeping base is located. CODECO has a history of targeting displacement camps, and last week, its fighters launched an attack on an army position in the Djukoth area, claiming the lives of at least seven civilians.
Notably, this is not the first time CODECO has inflicted violence on a camp near Bule. In a previous horrific massacre last year, the group reportedly killed around 60 people, marking one of its deadliest assaults.
As the death toll from the attack on the LALA camp is expected to rise, the CODECO leadership has yet to make any public statement regarding the incident.