Renewed fighting between ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed at least 160 people.

Nearly 40 villages were destroyed and more than 100,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the eastern province of Ituri during the past week.

Al Jazeera gained exclusive access to one of the villages that was attacked. Raheela Mahomed reports. </s> GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Ethnic clashes between Hema herders and Lendu farmers in the northeastern province of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo have killed more than 40 people, local officials said Friday.

Tensions between the groups have been largely dormant since their battles from 1998 to 2003 left thousands of people dead, but violence has flared again in recent months because of disputes over land.

At least 30 people were killed in two days of clashes last month between armed Hema and Lendu.

Militia activity has increased across eastern Congo’s borderlands near Uganda and Rwanda in the past year, stoked in part by President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down in December 2016 as required by the Constitution.

Alfred Ndrabu, a member of the Roman Catholic Church’s Justice and Peace Commission in Ituri, said a colleague in the village of Maze had counted 49 bodies from Thursday’s clashes, which continued into Friday morning.

“The Lendu and their allies attacked the village of Maze,” Mr. Ndrabu said. “They were pushed back by security forces.”

“They returned with reinforcements,” he said, “which was when they perpetrated the carnage.”

Jean-Bosco Lalo, an activist based in the provincial capital, Bunia, said his organization had so far recorded 43 deaths. He did not say who had initiated the violence. </s> GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Ethnic clashes between Hema herders and Lendu farmers in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province have killed more than 40 people, local officials said on Friday, in the second such incident in a month.

Tensions between the two groups have largely laid dormant since a 1998-2003 war, when thousands died in fighting between the two groups, but have flared again in recent months due to disputes over land.

At least 30 people were killed in two days of clashes last month between armed Hema and Lendu.

Militia activity has increased across eastern Congo’s borderlands with Uganda and Rwanda in the past year, stoked in part by President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate in December 2016.

Alfred Ndrabu, a member of the Catholic church’s Justice and Peace Commission in Ituri, said a colleague in the village of Maze had counted 49 bodies from Thursday’s clashes, which continued into Friday morning.

“The Lendu and their allies attacked the village of Maze,” Ndrabu told Reuters.“They were pushed back by security forces ... They returned with reinforcements ... which was when they perpetrated the carnage.”

Jean-Bosco Lalo, an activist based in the provincial capital of Bunia, said his organization, had so far recorded 43 deaths. He did not say who had initiated the violence.

“It was a case of reprisals by the two communities,” said local army spokesman Jules Ngongo, who did not yet have a death toll.“According to our information, there were cases of people being decapitated.”

Millions of people died during conflicts in Ituri and elsewhere in eastern Congo around the turn of the century, mostly from hunger and disease.

Three warlords from Ituri have been tried by the International Criminal Court - and two of them convicted - for their roles in those conflicts. Another is currently on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. </s> BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo (AFP) - A landslide in a fishing village on the banks of a lake in the north-east Democratic Republic of Congo, has killed 40 people, a regional official said on Thursday (Aug 17).

Part of a mountain engulfed "a fisherman's camp after heavy rains caused a landslide", the deputy governor of Ituri province, Mr Pacifique Keta, said.

He added that 40 people were killed in the disaster in the village of Tora, on the banks of Lake Albert on Wednesday.

The news comes on the heels of devastating floods in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown on Monday that killed some 300 people.

"Yesterday (Aug 16), we buried 28 bodies and today we will bury 12 more," said Mr Keta.

A doctor at the nearby Tshomia hospital, Dr Herve Isamba, said they were treating four people injured in the landslide.

Mr Keta said two people were also killed on Wednesday when an illegal mine flooded in the nearby Walendu Piti area.

The vast country has experienced a number of previous such disasters.

In May 2010, a mudslide that swept over the eastern village of Kibiriga killed 19 people. The bodies of 27 others were never recovered.

In February 2002, about 50 people were found dead after a wave of mud and rocks hit the eastern town of Uvira, submerging about 150 homes.

Fishing on Lake Albert is one of the main occupations in Ituri, which borders Uganda.

The province, rich in gold deposits, saw several outbreaks of violence during the Second Congo War between 1998 and 2003.

That ended with the aid of a French-led international military intervention. </s> Ugandan police stormed the palace of a tribal king and arrested him Sunday after fierce clashes between security forces and a separatist militia they believe is linked to him killed 55, police said.

Heavy fighting broke out Saturday in the western town of Kasese, home to King Charles Wesley Mumbere of the Rwenzururu kingdom, when his royal guards attacked patrolling security forces, killing 14 police officers and 41 militants, said police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi.

President Yoweri Museveni phoned the king on Sunday morning and ordered him to disband the guards, who are believed to be part of a militia agitating for the creation of an independent republic straddling Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"We took time to talk to the king to get those people out but the king was non-compliant. The only option was to storm the palace and get those people out and get him out for his own security and safety," Kaweesi told AFP.

"He has to explain his involvement in these incidents. He will be charged with inciting violence and brought to Kampala."

Kaweesi said members of the royal guard threw an improvised grenade at patrolling officers on Saturday, prompting them to open fire and kill four of the "attackers".

"That incident set off an explosion in all local sub-counties," he said, adding that fighting between militants — not all of them royal guards — armed with guns and spears and security forces had continued until late in the evening.

The Rwenzururu kingdom is a traditional monarchy based near the Rwenzori mountains which straddle Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, of the Bakonzo people — with supporters among those who share the same culture and language in the DRC.

The monarchy started out as a separatist movement of the same name when the Bakonzo — tired of being subjected to the rule of another tribe under colonial rule — declared their own kingdom in 1962.

The move led to years of bloodshed until a settlement was reached in 1982 in which the movement laid down arms in return for a degree of local autonomy.

However unrest has continued to simmer in the complex ethnic and political conflict, as many in the region still feel marginalised by authorities in distant Kampala.

Some in Uganda, with the support from their sister tribe in the DR Congo, have taken up arms and are agitating for the creation of the Yiira Republic which would cover territory in Uganda and part of North Kivu in the DR Congo.

The Banande in DRC and the Bakonzo in Uganda, have the same culture and language and are believed to stem from one people known as the Ba-Yira.

Though Mumbere has distanced himself from the cause, authorities accuse his royal guards of training in the mountains alongside separatist militia forces to attack government installations.

"We have told the government the kingdom is not involved in the creation of Yiira republic which wants to break away (from Uganda) and that the royal guards are not involved," Rwenzururu kingdom spokesman, Clarence Bwambale told AFP shortly before the king's arrest as heavy shooting echoed in the background. </s> GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo - United Nations investigators have discovered five probable mass grave sites in eastern Congo’s Ituri province where an outbreak of ethnic violence has killed at least 263 people, a UN peacekeeping mission said.

The report from the mission provides the most comprehensive portrait to date of the human cost of months of violence between Lendu pastoralists and Hema herders since December that has caused one of Africa’s most serious refugee crises.

Violence across eastern Congo’s borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi has spiked since President Joseph Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate in 2016, eroding state authority and emboldening armed groups.

The mostly Lendu-led attacks have forced more than 60,000 people to flee across Lake Albert into Uganda, and the UN refugee agency expects 200,000 refugees to reach Uganda this year. Tens of thousands of others have fled to other towns inside Congo.

The investigators did not provide details about the suspected mass graves, but said that about 120 towns and villages were pillaged and destroyed between December and mid-March.

According to Hema refugees Reuters interviewed last month in Uganda, Lendu groups typically attack Hema villages shortly after dusk with guns, machetes, axes and bows and arrows.

The precise motives for the attacks are difficult to pin down but tensions between the two communities have long been stoked by disagreements over cattle grazing rights, crops, gold mining and political representation.

Open warfare between the two communities from 1999-2007 is estimated to have killed some 50,000 people in one of the bloodiest chapters of a civil war in eastern Congo that left millions dead from conflict, hunger and disease.

Aid agencies say the crisis is a “mega-disaster” and are trying to raise over $2 billion to respond but Congo’s government has accused them of exaggerating the situation and boycotted a recent donor conference. </s> GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, April 26 (Reuters) - U nited Nations investigators have discovered five probable mass grave sites in eastern Congo's Ituri province where an outbreak of ethnic violence has killed at least 263 people, a U.N. peacekeeping mission said.

The report from the mission provides the most comprehensive portrait to date of the human cost of months of violence between Lendu pastoralists and Hema herders since December that has caused one of Africa's most serious refugee crises.

Violence across eastern Congo's borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi has spiked since President Joseph Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate in 2016, eroding state authority and emboldening armed groups.

The mostly Lendu-led attacks have forced more than 60,000 people to flee across Lake Albert into Uganda, and the U.N. refugee agency expects 200,000 refugees to reach Uganda this year. Tens of thousands of others have fled to other towns inside Congo.

The investigators did not provide details about the suspected mass graves, but said that about 120 towns and villages were pillaged and destroyed between December and mid-March.

According to Hema refugees Reuters interviewed last month in Uganda, Lendu groups typically attack Hema villages shortly after dusk with guns, machetes, axes and bows and arrows.

The precise motives for the attacks are difficult to pin down but tensions between the two communities have long been stoked by disagreements over cattle grazing rights, crops, gold mining and political representation.

Open warfare between the two communities from 1999-2007 is estimated to have killed some 50,000 people in one of the bloodiest chapters of a civil war in eastern Congo that left millions dead from conflict, hunger and disease.

Aid agencies say the crisis is a "mega-disaster" and are trying to raise over $2 billion to respond but Congo's government has accused them of exaggerating the situation and boycotted a recent donor conference. </s> GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - United Nations investigators have discovered five probable mass grave sites in eastern Congo’s Ituri province where an outbreak of ethnic violence has killed at least 263 people, a U.N. peacekeeping mission said.

The report from the mission provides the most comprehensive portrait to date of the human cost of months of violence between Lendu pastoralists and Hema herders since December that has caused one of Africa’s most serious refugee crises.

Violence across eastern Congo’s borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi has spiked since President Joseph Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate in 2016, eroding state authority and emboldening armed groups.

The mostly Lendu-led attacks have forced more than 60,000 people to flee across Lake Albert into Uganda, and the U.N. refugee agency expects 200,000 refugees to reach Uganda this year. Tens of thousands of others have fled to other towns inside Congo.

The investigators did not provide details about the suspected mass graves, but said that about 120 towns and villages were pillaged and destroyed between December and mid-March.

According to Hema refugees Reuters interviewed last month in Uganda, Lendu groups typically attack Hema villages shortly after dusk with guns, machetes, axes and bows and arrows. [nL1N1R20YN]

The precise motives for the attacks are difficult to pin down but tensions between the two communities have long been stoked by disagreements over cattle grazing rights, crops, gold mining and political representation.

Open warfare between the two communities from 1999-2007 is estimated to have killed some 50,000 people in one of the bloodiest chapters of a civil war in eastern Congo that left millions dead from conflict, hunger and disease.

Aid agencies say the crisis is a “mega-disaster” and are trying to raise over $2 billion to respond but Congo’s government has accused them of exaggerating the situation and boycotted a recent donor conference. [nL8N1RQ2TH] </s> A landslide has swept over a fishing village on the banks of a lake in the northeast Democratic Republic of Congo, killing 40 people, a regional official said today. Part of a mountain engulfed “a fisherman’s camp after heavy rains caused a landslide” the deputy governor of Ituri province, Pacifique Keta, told AFP.

He said 40 people were killed in the disaster in the village of Tora on the banks of Lake Albert on Wednesday. It follows devastating floods in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown on Monday that killed some 300 people.

“Yesterday, we buried 28 bodies and today we will bury 12 more,” said Keta.

A doctor at the nearby Tshomia hospital, Herve Isamba, said they were treating four people injured in the landslide. The vast country has experienced a number of previous such disasters. In May 2010, a mudslide that swept over the eastern village of Kibiriga killed 19 people: the bodies of 27 others were never recovered.

In February 2002, about 50 people were found dead after a wave of mud and rocks hit the eastern town of Uvira, submerging about 150 homes. Fishing on Lake Albert is one of the main occupations in Ituri, which borders Uganda. The province, rich in gold deposits, saw several outbreaks of violence during the Second Congo War between 1998 and 2003. That ended with the aid of a French-led international military intervention.

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In the past week, over 160 people have been killed and 40 villages destroyed in attacks between tribes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.