Communal violence rampant in west DR Congo — rights group

Intercommunal violence in the west of the Democratic Republic of Congo has left at least 300 people dead since last June, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday.

In October, the government put the death toll in the conflict between the Teke and Yaka communities at "over 180".

At the time, it considered the situation to be "under control", but the conflict began in the province of Mai-Ndombe and spread to neighbouring Kwilu.

Tens of thousands of people have also fled their villages, according to the United Nations.

Fourteen people were killed in the region last Friday, including 12 villagers hacked to death with machetes, according to a local official.

The unrest in western DRC was first sparked by a dispute over taxes and land.

Members of the Teke community consider themselves the original inhabitants of villages spread over 200 kilometres (120 miles) along the Congo River. Yaka people settled in the area after the Teke.

The violence "has killed at least 300 people in cycles of attacks and reprisals", Human Rights Watch said in the report.

"The government should urgently address longstanding disputes over customary power and land rights to prevent recurring violence," the group added.

"Villagers from the predominantly Teke and Yaka communities involved in a dispute over a customary tax and access to land damaged, destroyed, pillaged, and burned hundreds of houses, as well as schools and health centres," said HRW.

Some Congolese security forces deployed to quell the violence "allegedly committed extrajudicial executions, looting, and sexual violence".

"The Congolese authorities should urgently take necessary measures to protect civilians in the west from further attacks and uphold the rule of law,” said Thomas Fessy, HRW's senior Congo researcher.

The NGO said the government "did not reinforce overwhelmed provincial security forces until September and failed to provide adequate assistance to the more than 50,000 people displaced by the violence".

On Monday the UN said a surge in attacks in the east of the country has claimed more than 700 lives at the hands of militia fighters since December.

Rebel militias have plagued eastern DRC for decades, many of them a legacy of regional wars that flared during the 1990s and early 2000s.