About 200,000 people have been displaced in ethnic clashes since mid-December in the northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as escapees spoke of burnt villages and victims being hacked to death. Ituri province is just north of North Kivu.  https://www.independent.co.ug/200000-displaced-ethnic-clashes-dr-congo-sources/

Hema herders and Lendu farmers have been locked in violence in Ituri for decades, with tens of thousands killed from 1999 to 2003.

In 1999 a fight over land rights in the gold-rich province drew in militias and led to 60,000 deaths and about 600,000 people displaced, according to Human Rights Watch. The conflict led to the deployment of a European Union peacekeeping force in 2003.

Another humanitarian source said “on an average 800 people are arriving daily” in Bunia, the main city in the region, due to the fighting.  “Since mid-December about 200,000 people have been displaced in Ituri due to the violence,” the first humanitarian source said.

The UN in Kampala meanwhile said over 22,000 refugees had fled to Uganda recently to escape violence has left several dead and villages torched.  At least four refugees drowned while crossing the waters of Lake Albert between the two nations, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said, expressing concern.

“Last week, over 22,000 Congolese crossed Lake Albert to Uganda in three days, bringing the total number of people from the DRC arriving in the country to about 34,000 since the beginning of the year,” UNHCR said Tuesday.  “The refugees use small canoes or overcrowded and rickety fishing boats, often carrying more than 250 people and taking up to 10 hours to cross.”

Congo Provinces