The rotting corpses of about 30 men, women and children have been found in mass graves in the strife-torn north-eastern Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a military prosecutor said on Friday.
The remains were found on Wednesday in three graves at Bavi, a town about 40km south of the regional capital Bunia, where the DRC army has been deployed since July to stop fighting between local militia.
John Penza, the military prosecutor in the Bunia, said the bodies were without doubt those of 30 civilians who had disappeared between August and October of this year.
”There are bodies of men, of women, of children, some still not decomposed. It is horrible,” added Penza, who is leading the inquiry into the grave finds along with Monuc, the United Nations mission in the DRC.
Two military officers, the head of a battalion deployed in Bavi and a captain in charge of maintaining the discipline of the troops there, have been arrested in connection with the find, the prosecutor said.
The grave finds followed a tip-off from a military witness, he added.
They also came amid continued violence and uncertainty in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, following the re-election of incumbent leader Joseph Kabila in July presidential elections. — Sapa-AFP