OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Monday
BETWEEN 150 and 250 people died – some beheaded and burned alive – in clashes last week in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bunia, humanitarian sources there said Monday, considerably raising a previous toll.
Earlier reports said 59 people had died on Friday in clashes arising from an assault by Lendu tribespeople on Bunia airport, which is held by Ugandan troops whose helicopter had reportedly been used to attack nearby Lendu settlements in recent weeks.
The latest reports suggested many more people died later Friday evening when Lendu residents were attacked by members of a rival ethnic group, the Hema.
Long standing tension between the Lendu and the Hema has reportedly left thousands dead over the last couple of years and has this year prompted a wave of refugees to seek sanctuary in neighbouring Uganda.
Ugandan troops eventually restored calm in Bunia late on Friday, and by Sunday many residents who had fled the town had begun to return. Uganda backs a rebel group based in Bunia, and the Lendu accuse Kampala’s troops in the area of siding with the Hema in the tribal conflict.
The situation in Bunia has been complicated by the political and administrative vacuum created over recent months by internal power struggles within the rebel movement, a wing of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, headed by a professor, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba.
In November, two vice presidents of the movement, Mbusa Nyamwisi and John Tibisima, tried to overthrow Wamba dia Wamba. The attempt failed, and the Ugandans stepped in and took over the running of the town. A week ago, Tibisima and Mbusa signed a unity deal with Jean-Pierre Bemba, head of another rebel group backed by Kampala.
Wamba dia Wamba refused to sign this deal and has since been refused permission to return to Bunia, although he is still technically head of the rebel group based there.
“Heads were cut off and circulated around town in vehicles,” Wamba said of the massacres.
“Bodies were thrown in pit latrines. Houses were burned down in one quarter of Bunia, where i one instance 25 people were burned alive inside a house.”
Meanwhile, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe have called for new peace efforts to end conflict in the DRC following the slaying of its president Laurent Kabila in what an advisor says was “a premeditated attack”.
Presidents Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe said they were “convinced that dialogue and consultation present the most effective way to achieve durable peace in the DRC. Their countries all have troops fighting alongside DRC government forces in the two-and-a-half year conflict against rebels. – AFP
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