In its situational statement no. 10, dated Friday 9 October 2026, the Consortium International pour les Droits Humains au Congo (CIDHC) condemns "in the strongest possible terms" an alleged massacre in Maze, in the territory of Djugu, Ituri. It sees it as a sign of an alarming deterioration in the human rights situation, despite the peace pledges made by the new provincial military authorities.
According to the organisation's local sources, members of the CODECO militia, identified as Lendu and placed under the alleged command of the warlord Bassa Zukpa, attacked Maze (in the Bahumawe-Nord chiefdom) at around 3am. Eleven Hema civilians, including elderly people, women and children, are said to have been killed.
Some of the victims belonged to displaced families who had only just returned to their home village, having fled earlier violence blamed on the same militiamen. The CIDHC is careful to stress that this is all unconfirmed: the death toll, the circumstances and the perpetrators must be established by an independent investigation.
The organisation is also alarmed by the fallout: jeopardised returns of displaced people, a worsening humanitarian crisis, and fear and mistrust between communities, with the risk of reprisals.
It reminds readers that criminal responsibility is individual and cannot be attributed collectively to the Hema or the Lendu, who must not be conflated with the armed groups claiming to act in their name. It adds that the state of siege cannot justify any erosion of the fundamental safeguards owed to civilians.
On the legal front, the CIDHC cites Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute. If the facts are confirmed, they could amount to war crimes and, should a widespread or systematic attack on civilians be established, crimes against humanity, or even persecution if the victims were targeted on ethnic grounds.
The text states that naming Bassa Zukpa is not proof: his responsibility must be determined by a court, with the presumption of innocence respected.
The CIDHC then questions the responsibility of the provincial authorities under the state of siege and of the FARDC. It calls for an independent operational assessment: had warnings been issued, was there prior intelligence, were the available means of prevention properly used, and were there failures of coordination or intelligence? It points to Article 28 of the Rome Statute on the responsibility of superiors, while noting that a massacre alone does not establish an official's personal guilt and that the FARDC must not be presumed guilty.
The recommendations section, the longest, is addressed to a range of actors. The BCNUDH (the UN Joint Human Rights Office) is asked to verify the facts and send an investigative mission. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva is urged to monitor the situation in Djugu. The International Criminal Court is asked to examine any information passed to it.
The military governor of Ituri is given ten measures to carry out: a security assessment of Maze, protection for returning displaced people, early warning, monitoring of return areas, prevention of reprisals and punishment of individual failings. The FARDC, the judicial authorities, the UN and humanitarian partners are also called on to preserve evidence, protect witnesses and assist survivors.
In its conclusion, the CIDHC expresses its sympathy to the families and refuses to accept that the civilians of Djugu should keep paying for the conflict "with their blood", or that impunity should become a fatality. It stresses that the response cannot be purely military: it must combine protection, access to justice, humanitarian aid and the rebuilding of trust between communities.
The statement is signed by co-presidents Pitchou Roland Shomongo Mbey and Me Jean-Paul Paluku Ngahangondi.
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