French troops exchanged fire on Sunday with gunmen in the volatile northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bunia and were targetted by a hand grenade that failed to explode, a spokesperson for their force said.
Colonel Gerard Dubois told journalists that the EU-led Interim Emergency Multinational Force sent a patrol to the southwestern suburb of Tchemtchem after residents reported that armed men were looting a nearby dispensary.
”The militiamen attacked the patrol which responded,” said Dubois, who explained that the exchange of fire was very brief.
”The militiamen then fled, throwing a grenade which did not explode,” the spokesman added, saying no casualties were sustained on either side during the incident.
It was the third time the force, mandated by the United Nations to secure Bunia and protect its population from inter-ethnic clashes that have claimed hundreds of lives in recent weeks, had engaged armed men there.
On June 16, two armed men, reportedly drunk, were shot dead after they pointed their weapons at patrolling French special forces.
Two days earlier, another patrol engaged in a prolonged exchange of fire with factional gunmen. No casualties were reported.
Dubois said the force was determined to secure Bunia and that Sunday’s incident should send ”a clear message to all militiamen to stop threatening the population.”
The force has issued an ultimatum to armed groups in Bunia to turn the town into a gun-free zone by Tuesday morning, warning that any guns found thereafter would be confiscated.
Bunia is currently controlled by the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), a politico-military group dominated by the minority Hema ethnic group.
UPC gunmen still maintain a visible armed presence around the town, although the movement’s leader, Thomas Lubanga, has pledged to abide by the ultimatum.
The EU force, which began deploying earlier this month, has over 700 soldiers, mostly French, in Bunia, and around 600 others at a rear base in Uganda.
Its mandate lasts until September 1, after which at least one battalion of Bangladeshi soldiers is expected to arrive as part of a separate UN mission in DRC, known as Monuc. – Sapa-AFP