UN observers 'savagely killed' in Congo

Two United Nations military observers who were missing for days in Congo’s troubled north-east have been “savagely killed,” a spokesman said today.

The bodies of the officers were discovered in Mongbwalu, a gold mining centre 45 miles north-west of Bunia town.

The pair, a Jordanian and a Nigerian, last contacted colleagues on Tuesday, saying the situation in Mongbwalu was tense as rival Hema and Lendu tribal fighters prepared to battle for the town.

“Preliminary observations indicate that the observers were savagely slaughtered,” said Hamadoun Toure, a spokesman for the UN mission in Congo.

“We will open investigations into the killings to establish what happened and who is responsible.”

The United Nations has 32 unarmed military observers in Ituri, a resource-rich province that has been plagued by massacres and killings between rival tribal and rebel factions.

Scores of people have been killed and thousands forced to flee their homes in Bunia after more than a week of fighting between Hema and Lendu gunmen.

The fighting subsided on Friday after rival factions signed a cessation of hostilities agreement, but the town remained tense.

Amos Namanga Ngongi, head of the UN mission in Congo, said UN officials would investigate reports cannibalism took place during the fighting in Bunia and other towns in Ituri.

Reports of cannibalism “cannot be so persistent and false,” Ngongi said in Bunia. “There cannot be so much talk of such things if it is false.”

Reports of cannibalism are not new to Ituri.

On January 15, UN investigators confirmed that rebels of the Congolese Liberation Movement and the allied Congolese Rally for Democracy-National had carried out cannibalism, rape, torture and killing in the province late last year.

Similar reports emerged after an April 3 massacre of up to 1,000 people in Drodro, 26 miles north-east of Bunia, and 14 surrounding villages, UN officials said.

When asked why such acts appear to happen regularly in Ituri, Ngongi said: “I wish I knew – anybody who comes here has to be shocked by what is going on.”