"We have recorded the death of 16 civilians and seven militiamen since Sunday," Francois Bakundakabo, an aide to the provincial governor, told AFP.

"We have recorded the death of 16 civilians and seven militiamen since Sunday," Francois Bakundakabo, an aide to the provincial governor, told AFP.

Twenty-three people have been killed in renewed clashes between ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled east, according to an official toll Wednesday.

The violence, in Rutshuru territory in the conflict-scarred province of North Kivu, has pitted the Hutu community on one side against the Nande and Hundu groups on the other.

"We have recorded the death of 16 civilians and seven militiamen since Sunday," Francois Bakundakabo, an aide to the provincial governor, told AFP.

Fighting occurred in the villages of Bwalanda, Mutanda and Kikuku, where the groups have regularly clashed over control of land. Several dozen people were killed in 2017.

The Nande and Hunde consider Congolese Hutu to be foreigners and in league with Rwandan Hutu rebels, gathered in a notoriously violent militia called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

The FDLR, set up in 2000, includes several leaders who took part in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis, as well as member of the Pygmy Batwa community, were slaughtered by the Hutu majority government.

Eastern DRC has been a theatre of ethnic violence for 20 years, fuelled in part by the desire to control valuable mineral resources and farmland.</s>Twenty-three people have been killed in renewed clashes between ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled east, according to an official toll Wednesday.

The violence, in Rutshuru territory in the conflict-scarred province of North Kivu, has pitted the Hutu community on one side against the Nande and Hundu groups on the other.

"We have recorded the death of 16 civilians and seven militiamen since Sunday," Francois Bakundakabo, an aide to the provincial governor, told AFP.

Fighting occurred in the villages of Bwalanda, Mutanda and Kikuku, where the groups have regularly clashed over control of land. Several dozen people were killed in 2017.

The Nande and Hunde consider Congolese Hutu to be foreigners and in league with Rwandan Hutu rebels, gathered in a notoriously violent militia called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

The FDLR, set up in 2000, includes several leaders who took part in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis, as well as member of the Pygmy Batwa community, were slaughtered by the Hutu majority government.

Eastern DRC has been a theatre of ethnic violence for 20 years, fuelled in part by the desire to control valuable mineral resources and farmland.</s>Authorities on Thursday said 27 people have been killed during attacks by a rebel group in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province since the weekend.

Hope Sabini, Deputy Provincial Governor, said that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia group attacked several villages in Rutshuru area over several days,

He said nineteen civilians were killed as well as eight rebels.

The FDLR are mostly Rwandan Hutu fighters, whom Human Rights Watch and other organisations have accused of carrying out murders, mutilations and rape.

Numerous militias and rebel groups are active in the troubled provinces of North and South Kivu.

Some conflicts have ethnic components, many are also about control of the country’s lucrative natural mineral resources.</s>Kambale Musavuli, one of the country's leading political and cultural voices, told Radio Sputnik that the violence is being driven by competition for minerals and resources, which are being snatched by Western powers in order to manufacture our beloved tech.

​"We have a political crisis at the moment. Many Americans do not know that minerals, like cobalt, used to make their technological devices, cell phone batteries and cars, predominantly come from Congo. In fact, Congo is the number one producer of cobalt in the world today," Musavuli, who is the national spokesman for The Friends of the Congo, told Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear.

The renewed violence between the Hutu, Nande and Hundu ethnic groups in the Rutshuru Territory of Congo's North Kivu province is motivated by the desire to control land replete with minerals.

"We have recorded the deaths of 16 civilians and seven militiamen since Sunday," Francois Bakundakabo, an aide to the country's provincial governor, told AFP.

The Hundu people consider Congolese Hutus to be invaders that support the Hutu rebels in neighboring Rwanda.

"The situation today is tied to the direct history of Western interference, particularly the US," Musavuli told Loud & Clear hosts Brian Becker and John Kiriakou.

Kiriakou agreed, adding, "The country is very, very rich in natural resources that are used widely in US manufacturing — and in all manufacturing, for that matter. However, the country is kept poor by Western countries that are taking the resources out of it and this has led to violence."

"The central question in Congo is who is going to control Congo's resources. The resources find the way out, but the Congolese people remain at the bottom of the human development index as natural resources are being stolen from the country," Musavuli noted.

Violence in the country has also surged as of late as protesters march against President Joseph Kabila's extended rule. According to the United Nations, 47 people were wounded in Sunday anti-Kabila protests while more than 100 people were arrested as Congolese security forces cracked down.

Kabila has been president of the DR Congo since taking office following the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Desire Kabila, in 2001.

In 2006, the United Nations brokered a democratic election in the country and Kabila was elected to a five-year term as president, subsequently winning re-election in December 2011. His second term expired in 2016. According to the country's legislation, Kabila is not allowed to stay in office for his third term, but the country's election commission has not yet called elections to determine Kabila's successor, enabling him to remain in the office of the presidency. Opposition voices in the country claim the authorities are intentionally delaying the presidential election to allow Kabila to remain in power.
The death toll from clashes between militias in the Rutshuru Territory of the North Kivu province, DR Congo, rises to 23 people. The renewed violence has been ongoing since February 25.