Man Murders Police Commissioner In Eastern DR Congo

A commissioner of police was on Saturday, Mar. 19, killed in Boende, chief town of Tshuapa province in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Gervin Basambi, a provincial ministerial development officer in charge of sports and leisure, had his throat slashed in a bar in Avenue Lolo by a man who used a knife and a broken bottle to attack the senior police officer.

The suspect has been arrested. 

“This provincial commissioner was attacked and killed by a criminal while he was enjoying himself,” Michael Botuli, provincial government spokesperson for Tshuapa said. 

“This criminal who had already been arrested used a knife and broken bottle to end the life of our colleague who died five minutes after his throat was slashed.”

Botuli revealed that the corpse of the commissioner has been kept in the mortuary, adding that the provincial security council has been summoned to examine how to impose peace on Boende, chief town of the province.

Meanwhile, in another development, 14 displaced persons, including seven children were killed on Saturday, Mar. 19, during an attack by suspected rebels of the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO) on a refugee camp in Ituri to the northeast of the DR Congo, the local Red Cross said on Sunday, March 20. 

A little girl of two years and five women aged between 25 and  32 years were among the victims who were killed by machetes. Five other persons were seriously injured. 

“CODECO militia entered Drakpa where they used machetes to kill displaced persons,” Jean D’Zba Banju, chief of a group of villages in Ndo Banju in Djugu territory in Ituri province revealed.

“These displaced persons had escaped from the village of Ngotshi and settled in Drakpa.”

In neighbouring Beni territory, “four young persons were killed on the same Saturday in an ambush by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels about three kilometres from Eringeti,” according to Sabiti Njiamoja, the delegate of the governor of North Kivu in the village.

Since May 6, 2021 the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri have been placed under a state of siege and civilian authorities in the two provinces have been replaced by military governors but this extreme measure has not succeeded in curtailing violence and massacres in the said provinces.