 Six Nepalese UN peacekeepers have been captured in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by militia fighters who are demanding a ransom for their release, UN and Congolese sources said on Monday. The sources, who asked not be named, said the United Nations mission in Congo was in contact with the militia holding the Nepalese peacekeepers, who were seized during a U.N. military operation in violence-prone Ituri district on Sunday.
| Luckily ransoms are usually pretty cheap in that part of Africa... |
The incident showed that the 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Congo —the biggest in the world —was still struggling to pacify parts of the vast central African country ahead of historic elections scheduled to be held on July 30.
| They're going to be struggling to pacify parts of the vast central African country 300 years from now. |
The UN mission had said on Sunday it lost contact with the six soldiers, whose unit was involved in an operation targeting part of the Revolutionary Movement of Congo (MRC), a loose alliance of Ituri militia fighters. The "cordon and search" mission was taking place in Dhera, 100 km north of the main regional town of Bunia. |