Tribal militias currently wreaking havoc in the volatile northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ritually eat parts of the people they kill, according to residents and Ugandan military officials.
Congolese businessman, Bubu Tenga says the cannibals, who consist mostly of warriors from the Lendu tribe prefer hearts, liver and sexual organs, eating them in the belief that they will absorb the ”strength of the victim”.
”I know of a close family which was attacked a year ago and three people were taken away, killed and their body parts roasted and eaten,” Tenga told reporters in the main regional town of Bunia.
”When the warrior is fighting a person and he kills him or her, he has to eat the remains,” Tenga added. Lendu militias and their allied Ngiti tribal cousins have caused a bloodbath in the region in their ethnic wars with the dominant pastoralist Hema tribe.
The tribal militias along with rebel factions have in the past switched allegiances to Ugandan and Rwanda armies in the region pushing the tribal killings to near genocidal levels.
But Uganda which last year had over 1 000 soldiers stationed in the region to safeguard its border, in March sent in thousands of troops to stop the killings and defuse its own dissidents based there.
Ugandan army officials in the area confirm the existence of cannibalism among the Lendu and say it is a cultural fetish obligation.
”The habit is rife among the Ngiti and Lendu warriors. It is a fetish undertaking. The warriors believe that when they eat these parts of human fresh, they become brave,” said Brigadier Kale Kaihura, who added that one of his own men fell victim to the Lendu.
Ugandan troops have began withdrawing from the region according to a regional and UN-backed agreement and the security vacuum is being filled by UN peacekeeping forces who are being flown in.
A Ugandan army sergeant Biral Kaaya told Deutsche-Presse Agentur weeks ago rescued a family of three from the militia cannibals.
”They included two men and a woman. (The cannibals) had tied them up, prepared a fire and were about to butcher and roast them when we arrived. On many occasions, we meet these men roasting human fresh and eating it openly,” he said. United Nations officials could neither refute nor deny the allegations of cannibalism among the warriors. – Sapa-DPA