French soldiers deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) northeastern town of Bunia have heard distressing accounts of brutality from residents of surrounding villages, but their peacekeeping mandate is limited.
A baby was beheaded. A three-year-old girl was raped and then impaled. A woman had her genitals mutilated.
Ethnic killings in DRC’s Ituri region have continued despite the securing by European Union troops of Bunia, the area’s main town.
Tens of thousands of people who had fled Bunia in May when ethnic fighting made a resurgence there have returned to the town since the UN-mandated, French-led EU force deployed in Bunia and restored peace in June.
The mandate of the force is to keep peace in Bunia and surrounding areas. Massacres have continued in the villages. Dozens of people were killed last Friday in a massacre in the villages of Drodro and Largo, about 80 kilometres north of Bunia.
”Were it in our power, we would have gone there and intervened,” said a French soldier of the killings blamed on militiamen of the Lendu tribe who attacked homes belonging to their Hema rivals.
”We are like the father of the family, we are disgusted by the violence and we sometimes feel the urge to settle scores, but that is not our mission,” added Senior Sergeant Patrick Bertrand.
He commands a platoon manning Mogador outpost and whose responsibility is to control access to the road leading up to the villages of Nizi and Largo.
His 36 men, all aged about 20, have seen people fleeing after every massacre, like that in Nizi, where 22 people including 11 children were killed on July 19.
They have listened to witness accounts of the brutality meted out by the raiders. Bunia has become a haven for terrified residents.
During a patrol by the French troops, Lucien, a refugee, promised to get in touch with them if the marauding militias returned. Another refugee inquired whether Lendu militias had come back to wreak havoc in the town.
On Tuesday evening, as sporadic gun shots rang out in the surrounding areas, a child aged about five arrived at Mogador outpost with machete slashes all over his body.
Five bodies, some mutilated, were discovered that day in Bunia.
The foreign forces blamed the killings on settling of scores or rising crime as the town’s population swelled with the arrival of those fleeing violence in the rural areas.
The peacekeeping force has imposed a ”no visible weapons in town” rule in Bunia since June 25.
The 1 850-strong international force, codenamed Artemis, seized grenades from militiamen, some as young as 13.
Troops regularly search cars; motorists and pedestrians suspected of being members of militia groups are frequently stopped.
”We are on the main highway from which other roads in Ituri branch out and which would also be used by the UPC (rebel Union of Congolese Patriots that used to control Bunia) to receive arms,” explained Senior Sergeant Bertrand.
”We patrol all streets and search houses on information received from the public,” said Corporal Stephane Gourdeil.
A sizeable force would be needed to control the whole of Ituri region, said Gourdeil.
Of operation Artemis’ 1 850 men, only 500 are combatants, but the logistical challenge of keeping them there has been enormous.
The mission is expected to end on September 1, when the UN force, known by its French acronym as Monuc, will deploy a 3 800-strong brigade in Bunia. The brigade, offered by Bangladesh, will relieve the French-led force.
The UN Security Council on Monday renewed the mandate of its force in the DRC for one year, doubling its ranks to 10 800 and enabling it to use force to protect civilians and humanitarian staff. – Sapa-AFP