The United Nations Special Advisor on Genocide Prevention, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, says she has received alarming reports on multiple attacks against civilians along ethnic lines, particularly in DR Congo’s Ituri province.
Nderitu, who sounded a similar warning in December 2022, said her concerns also included mass killings, sexual violence, and attacks against IDP camps.
Also Read: UN confirms FDLR active in DR Congo, warns of genocide
"Whilst the situation in North and South Kivu requires immediate action, so does the situation in Ituri. Civilians are being massacred based on ethnic identity, yet again. The conditions necessary for the commission of atrocity crimes continue to be present in a region where a genocide happened in 1994,” she said in a report released on Tuesday, January 24.
"We need to do our utmost to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself,” she added.
According to the report, the Ituri Province was relatively calm for several years, and in 2017 armed groups resumed systematic attacks on villages.
Since December 2022, at least 195 civilians allegedly lost their lives and many more have been injured.
And on January, 13, 2023, an attack reportedly by the CODECO militia group in the villages of Nyamamba and Mbogi, Djugu territory, Ituri province, resulted in at least 49 civilians summarily executed.
A few days later, two mass graves containing the bodies of 42 and seven civilians respectively were discovered in the same locations.
"Impunity cannot prevail. When such heinous crimes are committed, perpetrators must never get away with it”, she stressed.
"The situation in Ituri remains extremely volatile. If we do not act promptly, the region may be engulfed in atrocity crimes as happened in the past.”
The UN, through its framework of analysis for atrocity crimes, recently established "indicators and triggers” present in DRC including; dissemination of hate speech and absence of independent mechanisms to address it, politicization of identity as well as proliferation of local militias and other armed groups across the country.
DR Congo is home to over 100 militia groups including the FDLR, which have led to the current skirmishes in the eastern part of DR Congo.
"The Special Adviser reiterates her continuous support towards strengthening existing prevention mechanisms,” she noted.
Nderitu also reiterated previous calls made on all armed groups in DR Congo to cease attacks on civilians, participate unconditionally in the political process, including regional initiatives, and lay down their weapons.