The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights briefing renewed violence in Ituri, DRC -Continued fighting in Libya impact on civilians, hospitals.
Ituri, RDC renewed violence in Ituri, DRC.
Renewed inter-communal violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern province of Ituri, resumed in this province on the Ugandan border. The United Nations Joint Human Rights office in the DRC published a report in January that this type of acts of violence, if committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population, may constitute crimes against humanity.
1. Aerial shots: Ituri province
2. Travelling shot: Driving into the Hema Internally Displaced camp in Bunia
3. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “We are alarmed by the worsening security situation in Djugu and Mahagi territories, where more than 150 people have been killed in the last 40 days in a series of attacks by Djugu-based perpetrators. The attackers are for the most part members of the CODECO armed group, most of whom are from the Lendu ethnic community.
4. Wide shot: Hema victim (women in the centre) speaking with UN human rights officer
5. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “In March alone, our Office recorded 107 civilians killed and 43 injured. So far in April, another 49 people have been killed, 13 wounded and six abducted. There are some more figures in the note. But the latest violence happened last Saturday when CODECO fighters attacked the village called Koli at night, killing 23 civilians just in that one village.”
6. Wide shot: Hema children in camp in Bunia
7. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Assaults on communities by these armed elements escalated significantly during March, with several gruesome assaults being reported. The attacks multiplied after the CODECO leader, Ngudjolo Duduko Justin, was killed on 25 March. And this reportedly triggered infighting for control of the group, which split into five factions, all carrying of which are carrying out attacks.”
8. Medium shot: Hema victim
9. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “It is important to note that leaders of the Lendu community the civilian leaders not the members of CODECO have mostly distanced themselves from the attackers.”
10. Medium shot: Hema women victim with amputated arm
11. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “The brutality of the attacks, with perpetrators using machetes to kill women and children, raping, looting property, destroying houses and killing livestock, suggests the aim is to inflict lasting trauma on the affected populations, forcing them to flee, and so gain control over the territory, which is rich in natural resources.”
12. Close up shot: Amputated limb of Hema women
13. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Despite the atrocities, the affected communities, mainly the Hema, but also the Alur, the Ndo Okebo and the Mambisa, generally shown restraint. However, we are worried that if the attacks continue without a
decisive response from the security forces to defend the civilian population, those communities may form self-defense militias, and that would increase the likelihood of an overall descent into all out inter-communal violence which would be absolutely catastrophic.”
14. Wide shot: Hema camp in Bunia
15. SOUNDBITE (English)—Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “So we call on the authorities to strengthen the presence of security forces and state officials in the region, to ensure there are thorough investigations into all alleged abuses and human rights violations, to hold all perpetrators to account in fair and impartial trials and provide victims and their families with access to justice, truth and reparations.”
16. Various Hema camp
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Today marks the grim milestone of 1,000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. Our Office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since 24 February 2022, among them 659 children. At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Jeremy Laurance told the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
With COP29 in Baku now in its second - and final - week, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights-based climate action.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL , UNICEF , WHO
Lebanon: Increased violence along Blue Line and ‘horrific new normal’ for children
In southern Lebanon, peacekeepers have witnessed “shocking” destruction of villages along the Blue Line and ever-deeper Israeli ground incursions, while the situation of children across the country is becoming increasingly desperate, the UN said on Tuesday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | UNRWA
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, confirmed on Monday that a large convoy of humanitarian aid was looted inside Gaza at the weekend, amid a near-total a breakdown in law and order and harassment of the agency’s staff by Israeli soldiers.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
In the nearly 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, thousands of civilians have been killed, the country’s energy infrastructure is on the brink and drones terrify communities on the front line, the UN’s top aid official in the country said on Friday.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | OHCHR
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
Gaza: ‘People are losing hope’ as aid access is refused to north, warns UNRWA
Besieged northern Gaza is a place of dead bodies lying in the streets and hospitals running out of blood packs – a situation that’s “nothing short of catastrophic”, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence & Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on Gaza
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Sudan’s displaced have endured “unimaginable suffering” in their search for shelter from the country’s ongoing war, UN humanitarians warned on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
‘Exceptional achievement’: Humanitarians reach over 105,000 with polio vaccine in north Gaza
Despite ongoing attacks and access challenges, humanitarians have managed to inoculate over 105,000 children in north Gaza with the second and final dose of the oral polio vaccine, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA
UN aid teams prepared to enter northern Gaza at the weekend to resume a mass polio vaccination campaign, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
Lebanon: widescale displacement continues amid ongoing bombing
In south and east Lebanon civilians continue to face airstrikes, mass forced displacement and deprivation as the fight between Israel and Hezbollah militia goes on against the backdrop of war in Gaza.
In recent days, an estimated 50,000 people have left Baalbek heading mostly to areas in the north of the Bekaa Valley, said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office (OCHA).