Bunia, 31 October 2016: The Mai-Mai Simba and the militia group known as “Force de Résistance Patriotique de l’Ituri” FRPI, must stop committing exactions against civilian population.” This is the gist of the message delivered by General Derrick Mgwebi to the population of Ituri at the end of his 4-day working visit to the Ituri province where, over the past two months, armed gangs committed several exactions against civilians, more particularly in the territories of Mambasa and Irumu.

During his visit, MONUSCO Force Commander, Derrick Mgwebi met with the political, administrative and security officials as well as civil society representatives in the Province and the territories of Mambasa and Irumu.

From Bunia to Mambasa through Biakato, Aveba and Gety, MONUSCO Force Commander saw for himself the real security situation in those territories. He realized that in the territory of Mambasa, the Mai-Mai Simba perpetrated several exactions against the local population. The same happened in the districts of Walendu Bindi in the territory of Irumu where the FRPI militias have committed several murders, lootings and rapes in several localities against civilians for the past months. Derrick Mgwebi called on “those armed groups to stop ill-treating their parents and brothers.”

He called on the civil society members and the officials in the territories of Mambasa and Irumu “to get involved in the sensitization of armed groups to get them to lay down weapons.” Even if “it is FARDC and MONUSCO’s responsibility to combat those armed groups still active for lasting peace in the Ituri province.” Civil society members and the officials, in turn, advocated for “an increase presence of the peacekeepers in their entities for their protection.”

Laurent Sam OUSSOU