Ten people have been killed in an attack by a local militia force on the village of Nyanda near the troubled north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) town of Bunia. "We found bodies of 10 people who had been executed by gunshots," an officer from the European Union force deployed there told AFP on condition of anonymity. The town of Nyanda is located some 20 kilometres north of Bunia and outside the protection zone the French-led "Artemis" force has set up in the town and around its airport.
| "Nope. Nope. Couldn't do nuttin'. Sorry." |
Village residents said the attack was carried out by a militia from the majority Lendu ethnic group. Inter-ethnic massacres between the minority Hema community and the majority Lendu in the DRC's troubled north-eastern Ituri region have claimed the lives of 50,000 people since 1999 and displaced half-a-million others. The violence led to the deployment of the Artemis force in the former flashpoint town of Bunia in June. Intermittent violence has continued in the town despite the 1,850-strong force mounting patrols and checkpoints around the town day and night. A meeting of community leaders attended by three government ministers was broken up on Friday local time by local militia sympathisers. The United Nations (UN) mission to the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUC, is preparing to take over from Artemis in September, replacing the EU force in Bunia with a 3,800-strong contingent of mainly Bangladeshi troops.
| That should make things even better... |
|