Mine event in Ituri, Sikumbili, Irumu area, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the on Wed 22nd June 2022

Two people, including a child, died and two others were injured on Wednesday 22 June following the explosion of a grenade and an anti-personnel mine in the villages of Sikumbili and Gokpa, located respectively in the territories of Irumu and Djugu, in the province of Ituri. According to local sources, these devices were planted by the belligerents during the fighting in these entities.The customary authorities deplore the absence of a demining service to identify other devices that constitute a permanent threat to the population. One of the victims of these explosive devices is a teacher from Wassa primary school in the Walendu Pitsi sector in Djugu territory. He was on his way to the fields on Wednesday in the Wago forest, says the Ituri civil protection service. He stepped on an anti-personnel landmine that tore his body apart and he died on the spot. Last Monday, three children picked up a grenade in the yard of their plot in Sikumbili village in the Mobala chiefdom, about 45 kilometres south of Bunia. They had used it as a balloon for entertainment, the local authority reported. The grenade exploded, killing one child on the spot and seriously injuring two others who were taken to a health facility. The origin of the device has not been determined. But local sources attribute it to the belligerents: FARDC and the FPIC militia who were fighting in the area. These same sources advocate intensifying explosive ordnance disposal operations in former conflict zones to prevent further damage.