Rwandan-backed rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have accused a rival group allied to the Kinshasa regime of massacring nearly 400 civilians this week in the northeastern Ituri region.
”The Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) denounces the
widespread massacring of the civil population near Bunia by the RCD-ML led by Mbusa Nyamwisi and allied to the forces of the Kinshasa government,” the rebels said in a statement in Kigali late on Saturday.
”During the nights of June 4-5, and again June 6-7, nearly 400 people were killed at Gomu (45 kilometres from Bunia), at Risafi, and in the villages of Bedu, Madro, Lonyo, Katoto and Kilo.”
A representative for the community confirmed there had been killings but questioned the death toll.
The Rwandan-backed group controls the eastern third of the vast DRC, while the RCD-ML (Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement), a small rebel group backed by Uganda, controls the far northeast of the country, near the border with Sudan and Uganda.
The region is plagued by ethnic violence, particularly between the Hema and Lendu tribes.
The RCD said ”four bodies had been taken to Bunia and placed in front of the office of the UN mission to the DRC (MONUC)”.
The rebels said they ”demanded a commission of inquiry be set up and urged the UN Security Council to put pressure on the Kinshasa government, the RCD-ML and their backers Uganda to stop the massacres”.
The RCD’s claims have not been confirmed by independent sources. The rebel group has been excluded from a peace deal signed at Sun City in South Africa in April between Kinshasa, the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) — the main Ugandan-backed rebel group — as well as smaller groups such as the RCD-ML and a host of political parties.
The RCD said that Kinshasa, the RCD-ML and Uganda should carry the blame for ”the unprecedented increase in attacks on Ituri’s civilians who are rejecting the Sun City accord”.
A representative for the Hema community, which has been worst hit by the violence, confirmed that there had been attacks but did not agree with the RCD’s death toll or version of events in the eastern DRC and blamed the killings on the rival Lema tribe.
”The Hema community is not against the Sun City accord,” he added.
The RCD has in recent weeks been accused of killing nearly 200 people in reprisal for a failed insurrection in the northeastern city of Kisangani, which is under its control. – Sapa-AFP