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UN says at least 23 massacred in northeastern DR Congo
Kigali (DR Congo), Oct 07: At least 23 people, the majority of them women and children, were hacked or shot to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN said, in the first reported massacre since UN peacekeepers began patrolling the troubled northeast last month.
Kigali (DR Congo), Oct 07: At least 23 people, the majority of them women and children, were hacked or shot to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN said, in the first reported massacre since UN peacekeepers began patrolling the troubled northeast last month.
"There was a massacre in Kachele," a village about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Bunia, Isabelle Abric, a spokeswoman for the Monuc force charged with keeping the peace in the capital of the Ituri region in the DRC, told a news agency by telephone yesterday.
"Members of Monuc who went to the area saw 23 bodies, but according to other eyewitness accounts, 32 other bodies had already been buried," she said. Abric said the victims were "mostly children, pregnant women or older people killed with machetes or shot."
United Nations forces began patrolling the region -- wracked by an inter-ethnic battle between the minority Hema and majority Lendu militias that has killed more than 50,000 in four years -- after taking over from a UN-mandated EU peacekeeping force in early September.
The spokeswoman declined to say which ethnic tribe the victims belonged to or who could have been responsible for the killing. Monuc dispatched a reconnaissance mission to the area after learning of the massacre, while a civilian and military mission was due to be sent there Tuesday, she said. "We will react very quickly," she added.
The attack reportedly took place early yesterday morning in the hamlet of Kachele, some 25 kilometers south of Fataki, Abric said.
Bureau Report
"Members of Monuc who went to the area saw 23 bodies, but according to other eyewitness accounts, 32 other bodies had already been buried," she said. Abric said the victims were "mostly children, pregnant women or older people killed with machetes or shot."
United Nations forces began patrolling the region -- wracked by an inter-ethnic battle between the minority Hema and majority Lendu militias that has killed more than 50,000 in four years -- after taking over from a UN-mandated EU peacekeeping force in early September.
The spokeswoman declined to say which ethnic tribe the victims belonged to or who could have been responsible for the killing. Monuc dispatched a reconnaissance mission to the area after learning of the massacre, while a civilian and military mission was due to be sent there Tuesday, she said. "We will react very quickly," she added.
The attack reportedly took place early yesterday morning in the hamlet of Kachele, some 25 kilometers south of Fataki, Abric said.
Bureau Report