Officials from the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo say 530 people have been killed in the past two months and more than 1 million displaced people are concentrated around various MONUSCO bases.
According to the Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Africa, on May 18, local media in the Democratic Republic of Congo, citing a United Nations report, said that attacks by armed groups in the country over the past two months have claimed the lives of more than 500 civilians and forced more than 1 million others to flee.
Radio Okapi of the Democratic Republic of Congo quoted Marc Karna Soro, head of the Ituri office of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), as saying that this assessment concerns the Djugu and Mahagi territories in Ituri province in the eastern part of the country.
Also on this issue, UN Radio reported that Mr. Soro, who had just returned from a mission in the southern part of Irumu Territory, Ituri Province, provided an update on the general security situation in the province. According to Mr. Soro, 530 people have died in the past two months and more than 1 million people have been displaced and are concentrated around various MONUSCO bases.
Meanwhile in Nigeria, officials said on the same day that 85 people had died and more than 3,000 had been displaced in ongoing clashes between livestock herders and farmers in the central part of the country.
Violence erupted on May 15th. Initial reports indicate that 30 people have been killed in Plateau state, an area that has faced ethnic and religious tensions for many years.
According to local sources and witnesses, several villages in the Mangu district of Plateau state continued to be engulfed in violence on May 18, forcing many residents to flee.
This crisis is one of several security challenges facing Nigeria's newly elected president, Bola Tinubu, who will officially assume leadership of Africa's most populous nation at the end of May.
According to Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds of homes destroyed due to the violence.
Eugene Nyelong, NEMA's coordinator for the area, said: "We have recorded a total of 3,683 people evacuated… More than 720 homes have been partially or completely destroyed."
He added that emergency relief supplies are being transported to those in need.
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