Seven civilians were killed on Wednesday, December 30, 2020 during an attack by militiamen on the Bijombo displaced persons camp situated in the Bafuriro chiefdom in the Uvira territory of South Kivu.
According to the local civil society organisation, those killed were internally displaced persons living in the Bijombo camp set up by the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Cong (MONUSCO).
The source revealed that the attackers were militia fighters of the Twirgwaneo and Gumino armed groups who opened fire on unarmed civilians without any provocation.
âIt was around 6 am in the morning of Wednesday December 30, 2020 that suspected Ngumino and Twirgwaneho militiamen opened fire on people who were on their way to their farms,” revealed Abakwa Abisha, the Secretary of the Kapupu civil society organisation.
“There were about 50 people who were shot at and seven of them including a boy of ten years and a girl of 13 years as well as five women were killed on the spot. Some other persons have been declared missing and are still unaccounted for right now.”Â
 Attacks by the Ngumino and Twirgwaneho on the displaced persons in Bijombo have been persistent since September 2020.
âThere have been several assassinations too and it is time that the government should do everything to neutralize these criminalsâ, the civil society secretary said.
âWe call on the government to think of securing these peaceful displaced persons who have been victims of clashes since 2018 to date because what is happening now could be a pointer to the fact that our army has failed in its mission which is the security of the populations and their belongings,” Abisha declared.
The Bijombo camp hosts internally displaced persons from the upper plateau villages of Fizi, Mwenga and Uvira who escaped from clashes between armed groups for the past two years.
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