This archive report was first published on 24 August 2020.
President Felix Tshisekedi's appeal to end violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been heeded by a militia group, with attacks on ethnic rivals set to cease.
According to the government and the militia, the Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), the ceasefire was agreed upon through the mediation of former warlords in the troubled Ituri province.
Codeco, which draws its members from the mainly farming Lendu people, has been blamed for massacres that UN officials have likened to 'crimes against humanity'.
"We are stopping the acts of violence as the head of state is asking," Codeco spokesman Basa Zukpa told AFP on August 23, 2020.
"We are ready to seize his outstretched hand. That's why we are telling our units to respect this process, to be calm."
Codeco was most recently blamed for killing 19 civilians in attacks on August 9 on three villages in Ituri.
