Tribal conflict claims 54 lives in Congo

AT least 54 people were killed this week in renewed tribal fighting in northeast Congo, close to the town of Bunia, where an international force has been deployed to keep the peace.

A United Nations spokesman in Bunia confirmed there had been heavy fighting around the town of Tchomia, but said it had not been possible to confirm the death toll.

“There have definitely been attacks with heavy weapons,” Leocadio Salmeron said. “But we don’t have a reliable death toll. The rebels say there were attacks on Tchomia and Kaseni in the last few days ... that there are 54 dead and a hospital destroyed, but it is not confirmed.”

There are fears the continued turmoil in the northeast could jeopardise the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A new government was due to be sworn in in the capital Kinshasa yesterday, with the aim of leading the vast central African country to democratic elections and ending the conflict which has killed more than three million since 1998.

A spokesman for the mainly Hema PUSIC rebel group said militias allied to the Lendu tribe attacked Tchomia, on the shores of Lake Albert, on Tuesday morning.

Kisembo Bitamara said Lendu militiamen and fighters from the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Kisangani faction (RCD-ML), backed by Kinshasa, attacked at 4am local time. The fighting lasted until early afternoon.

“The attackers burned three houses but we killed 32 of them before they fled into the mountains,” he said by telephone from western Uganda.

A French-led international force was sent to Bunia in June to intervene after massive rights abuses and fighting killed hundreds of civilians there, but it does not have the mandate to go beyond Bunia.

Ituri, which lies close to the Ugandan border, is a mess of brutal militias and rebel movements that prey on civilians, as they try to get enough power to ensure they have a role in the political process to end the war.

Last month, PUSIC said more than 350 people were killed in fighting between the same rebel groups. It is always difficult to confirm death tolls in Ituri’s remote hills and mud hut villages.

Rwanda, Uganda and Kinshasa are deeply embroiled in the conflict, backing various factions to maintain their influence in the mineral-rich region.