New Teke-Yaka Communal Violence Leaves More Than 10 Dead In DR Congo

More than 10 persons were on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022, killed in renewed communal violence between the Teke and Yaka tribal groups in Mibe, Kwamouth territory of Mai-Ndombe province.

According to information from the Kwamouth civil society, Mibe – a majority of whose inhabitants are Yaka – was attacked by Teke tribesmen from four neighbouring villages.

“There were clashes along the national highway number seventeen. The death toll is sixteen. They clashed in Mibe village. There were Teke people from Camp Banku, Bisiala, and Menko who came together to go and attack the Yaka people who had set up a roadblock in Mibe. Fourteen Yaka and two Teke were killed”, said Martin Suta, vice president of the Kwamouth civil society.

Traffic on national highway number seventeen has been momentarily suspended because of the violence.

The national parliamentarian for Kwamouth constituency, Guy Musomo, confirmed the clashes took place, but gives a somewhat higher death toll of at least twenty people killed.

“The assailants who are in Mibe were planning to attack three Teke villages, but the youths, in their exuberance, precipitately attacked the village of Mibe. On arriving in the village, they met resistance, and in the fighting that ensued, there were deaths recorded. On the side of the Teke, there were four dead, and on the side of the Yeke, there were between fifteen and seventeen dead,” Guy Musoko revealed.

The president of the Mai-Ndombe civil society, Fidele Lizoringo, has called on the government to investigate the possible infiltration of outside forces into the belligerent communities because fighters from both sides have even been attacking soldiers of the DR Congo national army, FARDC.

“We are asking why there is resistance in Kwamouth territory. Loses of human lives continue to increase, murderous acts continue to be committed, and the population has begun opposing the military, which is supposed to protect them. We call on the government to institute an investigation in order to discover whether there is infiltration or an outside force behind these men,” Fidel Lizoringo declared.

Right now, the situation is far from being calm despite the multiple missions of appeasement sent to the zone by the government and military reinforcements sent to Kwamouth are yet to succeed in re-establishing order and security in the region.

These new killings bring to more than forty the number of deaths recorded since the beginning of the Teke-Yaka communal violence, while more than two hundred houses have been burnt down and more than ten thousand displaced persons registered in Kwango since Aug. 20, 2022.