Military engineering has already rehabilitated nearly 80% of houses in the city of Yumbi, in the province of Mai-Ndombe. This is good news for the inhabitants of this part of the republic of which nearly 16,000 have taken refuge in Makotimpoko in the neighboring Congo because of the deadly conflict between the two Banunu and Batende ethnic groups in mid-December 2018.

After four months of forced exile they can now return to the fold.

« The work is very well advanced. We are 80% of the achievements here in Yumbi cited. Next week, I will be in Bongende», Colonel Charles Mamba, who was in charge of the reconstruction and rehabilitation of houses and buildings in Yumbi, told Radio Okapi recently.

This senior officer of the Armed Forces of DR Congo (FARDC), even claimed that some owners had already occupied their homes. This reassured other refugees, among the 16,000 who had crossed the pool due to conflict.

To him to clarify: « if you arrive today in Yumbi, it is the craze, the total joy and the people work. There are some who are occupying their homes abandoned since the second half of December 2018. Others, on the other hand, are trying to move their homes.»

The December 2018 conflict between the Banunu and their Batende brothers was the deadliest in the history of Yumbi territory. Perhaps also, that of the new province of Mai-Ndombe, resulting from the dismemberment of the former province of Bandundu.

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According to the report of a special fact-finding mission of the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO), which was deployed from 17 to 26 January in Yumbi territory, killings on 16 and 17 December in four localities of the Yumbi territory had resulted in the death of approximately 535 people.

The victims, said the World Organization, were almost exclusively Banunu, hunted by armed men from the rival community, the Batende.

The investigation had established that between 16 and 18 December 2018, attacks on Banunu populations had occurred in the localities of Yumbi, Bongende and Nkolo II. This, after several weeks of tensions related to a land dispute between the Batende and Banunu communities around the burial of a customary leader Banunu.

In addition to 535 registered deaths, the death toll of the conflict was 111 wounded. In addition, at least 967 buildings, mainly houses, but also 14 churches, 17 schools and five health centers had either been looted or destroyed.

Most of the survivors had fled further than the islets on the other side of the river, in Makotimpoko prefecture, in Congo Brazzaville. According to testimonies, they crossed on pirogues, without clothes and some rowed with the hands.

Nearly two months after the manhunt, the community of Yumbi was completely deserted, except for a few Naval Force soldiers guarding the port of this fishing village. Houses were burned, or destroyed, looted and a heavy silence.

Nadine FULA