DRC must prevent bloodshed in the west, says UN

THE UN warns of renewed violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo unless Kinshasa takes steps to ease tensions between two communities involved in bloody clashes at the end of last year.

“New waves of violence” could erupt “at any time” in the western DRC, said UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani this week.

The UN rights office gave the warning following preliminary results into a probe it carried out into clashes between the Banunu and Batende communities in Mai-Ndome province in Yumbi in December last year, which killed about 800 people and displaced thousands. In the final assessment, the UN said the violence may amount to crimes against humanity.

Shamdasani said many corpses were thrown into the Congo River. She said it was not possible to confirm the number of people still missing, as an estimated 19 000 people were displaced by the violence – 16 000 of whom crossed the Congo River into the Republic of the Congo.

UN-backed investigations report that the violence was triggered by a dispute over the burial of a Banunu chief, reportedly on Batende land.

Batende villagers armed with firearms, machetes, bow and arrows, and petrol launched assaults on ethnic Banunus.

These assaults included a 2-year-old child thrown into a septic tank and a woman raped after her 3-year-old child was decapitated and husband killed. | African News Agency (ANA)