A mass grave was discovered by aid workers clearing bodies from a troubled northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town, bringing the number of people killed in tribal fighting to more than 300, a UN official said on Thursday.
Aid workers were Wednesday tipped off about the grave, which had more than 32 bodies, by residents of the neighbourhood on the outskirts of Bunia where it was located, said Isabel Abric, a representative for the UN mission in the DRC.
The bodies appeared to have been dumped into a pre-existing pit and many were in an advanced state of decomposition, making it impossible to say exactly how many there were, Abric said.
It was not immediately clear if the victims were civilians or fighters killed in more than a week of clashes between Hema and Lendu rival tribal factions.
An additional seven bodies were picked up off the streets of Bunia, the capital of the Ituri district, bringing the total number of confirmed dead to 319 people, Abric said.
The death toll is expected to rise further as efforts to collect and bury the dead continue, she said.
Fighting subsided on Friday after the rival factions signed a cease-fire agreement. Although they agreed to demilitarise the town, gunmen still patrolled the streets with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
A representative for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday the situation in the DRC remained ”dangerously tense.” Annan has worked to muster an international force to stabilise the Ituri district and keep fighting between the Hema and Lendu from re-erupting.
The French have been asked to lead the force and a team of French military officers spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Bunia assessing the situation and working out the logistics of such a mission.
Ituri has been plagued by fighting and massacres for several years as rival tribes and rebel factions fighting in the nearly five-year civil war in the DRC fought for control of the province’s rich mineral deposits, vast timber forests and fertile land.
The latest fighting in Bunia erupted after Uganda withdrew its more than 6 000 troops from in and around the town earlier this month as part of a peace deal to end the civil war in the DRC.
Church leaders and residents have said cannibalism took place during the fighting. The UN is investigating those charges and allegations that civilians may have been raped or summarily executed during the clashes.
The war in the DRC broke out when Uganda and Rwanda sent troops to back rebels seeking to oust then-President Laurent Kabila, accusing him of arming insurgents threatening regional security. Most foreign troops have withdrawn under a series of peace deals.
There are about 750 UN troops in Bunia, but they could not stop the violence. There are an estimated 25 000 to 28 000 tribal fighters in the region, with thousands deployed in and around Bunia. – Sapa-AP