The UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) said it found 50 mass graves in the western part of Congo DR.

According to the United Nations rights group, the mass graves were used in December 2018 after a spate of killings in the region.

‘More than 50 mass graves, excluding other common and individual graves were identified,’ said Abdoul Aziz Thioye, the director of UNJHRO.

Thioye added on Saturday that the dead bodies were found Yumbi town, a location in the western part of Mai-Ndombe province.

‘The findings show a high number of deaths since a communal grave, depending on the size, may contain 5, 10, 100 or even more corpses.’

Thioye’s statement was delivered following a joint fact-finding mission with local authorities.

According to AFP, General Fall Sikabwe (an army chief in western DRC) confirmed that investigation into the killings is in progress but gave no further details. ‘The perpetrators killed policemen and soldiers…They disarmed them and have used their weapons to destroy lives and property.’

The UN reported earlier this January that about 890 people were killed during a 3-day inter-communal clash in the region.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in her official statement dated 16 January that UN office gathered information on the massacre from “credible sources.”

‘Many people were killed between December 16 and 18 in four villages in Yumbi,’ Michelle noted.

There are speculations that the violence stems from a long-standing rivalry between the Banunu and Batende ethnic groups. It is believed that war between the groups started after Banunu tribespeople buried one of their traditional chiefs on a piece of land that belongs to the Batendes on the night of 13 December, 2018.

Over 450 houses and building were torched or looted, including 2 primary schools, a market, a health center, and an office belonging to the national elections commission, the UN rights office said.

A total of 16,000 people abandoned their homes to safety, the UN refugee agency said earlier this month. Most of the displaced persons are seeking shelter in Congo Brazzaville, which is also known as the Republic of Congo.

In 2009, ethnic clashes in DRC forced 13,000 people to Republic of Congo, where refugees–including those from Central African Republic and Rwanda–now total around 60,000.