Security officials say CODECO militia groups carried out the attack in Ituri province.

An attack by armed rebels has killed at least 69 people in Ituri province in the conflict-torn northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to security officials.

For more than 30 years, the mineral-rich eastern DRC has been a battleground for various armed groups, vying for control of its many mines.

Two ethnic groups – the Hema and the Lendu – have been locked in a long-running violent conflict in Ituri, a gold-rich province that borders Uganda and South Sudan.

Armed men affiliated with the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO) coalition of militia groups, which claims to protect the Lendu, carried out attacks in several villages on April 28, local and security sources told the AFP news agency.

These attacks followed an earlier assault by another armed group, the Convention for the Popular Revolution (CRP) – which says it fights for the Hema community – on positions held by the Congolese army (FARDC) near the locality of Pimbo, they said.

More than 70 people were killed when CODECO fighters launched the retaliatory attacks in late April, civil society leader Dieudonne Losa told AFP.

Two other security sources, talking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the attacks, with one stating a death toll of at least 69, including 19 militia members and soldiers.

The presence of CODECO fighters delayed the recovery of the bodies for several days, they said.

“Only 25 bodies have been buried,” Losa said on Saturday, adding several sets of remains had yet to be recovered.

A humanitarian source described bodies “strewn on the ground” near the village of Bassa, one of the areas targeted.

Avoiding retaliation

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) said on April 30 it had rescued “nearly 200 people caught under fire” from the CRP assault on the FARDC.

On Saturday, it said it “strongly condemns the recent wave of deadly attacks targeting civilians” in the restive east.

The Ente association, a nonprofit representing the Hema community, described the killings as a “massacre”, urging its members to avoid retaliation.

Famous for its mineral wealth, ranging from cobalt and copper to uranium and diamonds, the former Belgian colony has long been beset by corruption and bloodshed.

Since early 2025, Ituri has seen a resurgence of the CRP, a group founded by convicted Congolese strongman Thomas Lubanga.

He was found guilty in 2012 by the International Criminal Court for recruiting children into his rebel army and released in 2020 on completion of his prison sentence.

Fighting between the CRP, the Congolese army, and the CODECO has been marked by widespread abuses and killings of civilians.

The region also faces ongoing attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a group formed by former Ugandan rebels that has pledged allegiance to ISIL (ISIS).

Rawya Rageh, a senior crisis adviser at Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera that government forces should be doing more to protect civilians in the region.

“There are multiple challenges facing the Congolese authorities. Eastern DRC is a vast area. There are multiple competing actors – M23, ADF, CODECO. With a group like ADF, for example, they capitalise on security gaps. Most of the forces are overstretched responding to the threat from M23,” she said.

“We do expect more from the security forces. In particular, with the confrontations with the ADF, we see entire areas that are emptied of troops that have been diverted to other front lines, leaving civilians completely vulnerable to ADF and other armed groups.”