A United Nations helicopter has been fired on as it took off from the town of Bunia in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s troubled Ituri district, the UN mission in DRC, Monuc, said on Tuesday.
”A Monuc helicopter was fired on Monday … above Bunia, 15 minutes after it took off, bound for Beni. The incident happened 40 kilometres southwest of Bunia,” Monuc said in a statement.
The small rebel militia that controls the Bunia region, the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), which has criticised the United Nations for bias in the thorny conflicts in Ituri, on Tuesday said it played no part in the attack.
”We deny any involvement in this incident,” said UPC foreign affairs representative Jean-Baptiste Dhetchuvi.
One bullet penetrated the cockpit of the MI-8 helicopter, but none of the eight people on board, including the commander of Monuc forces, Senegalese General Mountaga Diallo, was injured. Diallo had travelled to Bunia as the head of a team of
negotiators who held talks with Thomas Lubanga, head of the UPC.
The negotiators had discussed with Lubanga the possibility of reviving attempts to set up a pacification commission for Ituri, where ethnic fighting that broke out four years ago flared up again in November last year.
Renewed conflict among different local groups, together with an incursion into the mineral-rich region by rebels based in the north of the vast DRC, has followed the withdrawal of Rwandan soldiers involved in the country’s war under a series of peace pacts.
The United Nations has accused the UPC of hindering the peace process in Ituri. On Monday, UN Security Council ambassadors accredited in the DRC called for a pacification commission to be set up immediately for Ituri and called on all parties to the conflict in the region, near the border with Uganda, to cooperate fully with the commission.
”The helicopter was able to continue on its way without any difficulties and landed at Beni (Nord-Kivu) half an hour later,” the Monuc statement said.
The attack was the first against Monuc since the beginning of the year, and the fifth since the UN observers deployed in DRC in 1999. Monuc said it ”vigorously condemns this unjustified attack” and has launched an investigation to find those responsible for it.
”Monuc reminds all parties to the Congolese conflict that it is their responsibility to ensure the safety of United Nations mission personnel in territory under their control,” the statement said. – Sapa-AFP