Fighting rages around UN compound in Congo

More than 10,000 terrified civilians were sheltering at a United Nations compound in north-east Congo today as a fierce battle raged around them.

Stray mortar rounds and heavy machine gun bullets tore into the refugees as they huddled together outside the base in Bunia. Officials said at least 10 people had died and 100 were wounded this morning alone.

One mortar shell landed 50ft away from the building, wounding 12 people, mostly children, UN spokeswoman Patricia Tome said at the scene.

“There is firing everywhere, from mortars, Kalashnikovs and other heavy arms,” she said by telephone.

Fighting between rival Hema and Lendu militiamen has been fierce for several days around the town.

Both groups are trying to seize the upper hand after neighbouring Uganda pulled out 6,000 troops it had based in the area – and warned it was leaving a security vacuum in its wake.

The Ugandan withdrawal came as part of a multinational deal following the five year, six nation war in Congo.

But it left Bunia in the hands of local Lendu fighters, 625 UN observers and an even smaller Congolese police force – no match for the tens of thousands of tribal fighters now massed around the town.

The Hema and Lendu have a bloody history. Fighting between the two groups in the lawless Ituri province killed 1,000 people in April alone.

Yesterday’s renewed clashes in Bunia swelled the numbers of civilians seeking refuge at the UN compound to more than 10,000.

Tome said 80% of Bunia’s 90,000 people have already fled into the jungle.

“Our evaluation of what we know, it could be a genocide,” said chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.

Local human rights workers said two Red Cross workers were shot dead as they tried to collect the decomposing bodies from the town’s streets.

In the Congolese capital Kinshasa, government spokesman Kikaya Bin Karubi appealed to the UN to send a powerful intervention force – rather than the observers who are currently in place.

“It is truly urgent because the Ugandans and the Rwandans have left in place their militias, to kill each other, and exterminate the Congolese people,” he said.

The UN has appealed to France and other governments to contribute troops for a major armed intervention to stop the fighting. France said it had been asked to send a battalion, and said it was considering the request.