DRC violence forces thousands to flee
CAPE TOWN — The United Nation’s refugee agency has reportedly said that about 1 000 Congolese have fled to neighbouring Angola to seek refuge, amid an upsurge of violence between rebels and the government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to Voice of America, the UN High Commission for Refugees says that at least one million people had been displaced in the central African country since the violence erupted last year in August.
The fighting erupted after government forces killed tribal chief Jean Pierre Mpandi, also known as Kamwina Nsapu, who had launched an uprising against President Joseph Kabila’s government.
The violence has forced an wave of people to flee into Angola, where more than 9 200 refugees have been registered so far.
UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said that children were most affected, as they constituted the majority of those who were fleeing to Angola.
“The situation among arriving refugee children is dire, as about half of the arriving refugee population are children. Many of them are arriving malnourished and sick, suffering from diarrhoea, fever and malaria,” Baloch was quoted as saying.
Reports have said that Angola had stepped up its security along its border with the central African country.
Angolan police chief Ambrosio de Lemos was quoted saying that the increased security patrols in the country’s border was to “prevent the infiltration of armed groups into our national territory”.
Meanwhile, the UN on Monday criticised Congolese authorities for releasing a video showing the grisly murders of two UN experts, saying the move could harm the investigation and was traumatic for the families. “The video is evidence in the crime. We don’t think it should have been released. We don’t think it should have been shown,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Congolese authorities showed the two-minute video to journalists, in an apparent bid to address suspicions that Kinshasa may have had a hand in the murders.
Dujarric said the video was authentic. “One can only imagine how traumatic it is to the families of the victims,” he said.
The video showed Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan surrounded by seven people speaking Tshiluba, the main language of Kasai, armed with machetes, sticks and one with an old gun.
Through an interpreter out of shot, the armed men promise to show the location of mass graves in the bush. Seemingly worried, the white man asks the interpreter in French with a marked accent: “Why are they armed and angry?”
The two foreigners are quickly forced to sit on the ground before orders are barked and they are shot. One of the victims is then beheaded.
“This is how the men of Kamwina Nsapu operate,” government spokesman Lambert Mende told reporters, saying the murder showed “the work of terrorists that must be wiped out by all means.” — AFP.