- Unidentified militia members ambushed and murdered nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers serving in the Congo Kinshasa's (DRC) remote northeast in what the UN calls "the worst-ever attack against the UN's forces" in the country. The UN and Congolese troops are trying to track down the militiamen.
According to information released by the United Nations today, the nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers were serving in the troubled Ituri district as part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo Kinshasa (MONUC). They were part of a larger company that had been trying to protect internally displaced persons from harassment by local militias near Kafé in Ituri.
The Bangladeshi peacekeepers this morning had run into an ambush near Kafé by the unidentified militia. The militiamen had opened fire without any warning and shot to kill. Nine peacekeepers were killed and an unknown number were wounded.
First speculations on the identity of the militia ambushing the UN peacekeepers pointed to the Front Nationaliste Integrationiste (FNI). The FNI militia is a radical group of the Lendu people, which lately has attacked and burned down villages of the competing Hema people in the area close to Kafé. The conflict between the Lendu and Hema peoples goes back to colonial times and Ituri has so far proven the most difficult region to pacify for the UN peacekeepers.
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard at a press daily briefing in New York today said that the troops had been on a patrol to camps believed to belong to a local militia that had "refused to take part in disarmament and reintegration programmes" when they were ambushed and fired upon. Mr Eckhard however did not name the FNI militia.
He said it remains unclear who is responsible for the attack, but MONUC has begun a probe and believes the ambush is a direct response to peacekeepers' attempts in Ituri to "prevent militias" there "from terrorising civilians, looting their belongings and forcing them to pay illegal taxes."
Today's attack on the MONUC troops is the worst-ever against the UN's forces in Congo Kinshasa. MONUC is currently the world's largest peacekeeping mission with almost 14,000 troops. No larger incidents costing many peacekeeper lives had so far been reported.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on the Kinshasa government to help the UN track down the responsible Ituri militia members. Spokesman Eckhard added that he had urged the Congolese government to "make every effort to find and hold accountable those responsible for this reprehensible and criminal attack."
Two platoons of UN troops were today sent to the area where the peacekeepers were killed to secure it and to protect the survivors of the ambush. Other UN units are trying to track down the militiamen to hold them accountable for the ambush.
The UN-supported 'Radio Okapi' earlier today reported that the head of MONUC and special representative of the UN Secretary-General in the country, William Swing, had decided to increase the number of peacekeepers in Ituri. At the moment there is a UN brigade of peacekeepers stationed in Bunia, the main town in the province.
Condemning the slayings, Mr Annan offered his condolences to the families of the nine soldiers. "They are good peacekeepers, and I am sorry it had to end like this," he said. The UN Secretary-General also stressed that the attack would not deter MONUC from carrying out its mandate to help advance Congo Kinshasa's peace process.
MONUC has been operating in Congo since November 1999, but the country continues to be ridden by deadly inter-ethnic violence. About 3.8 million people are estimated to have been killed in the past six years: some of them murdered but many more dead from disease or starvation. Malnutrition is widespread, many schools and hospitals have been destroyed, and parts of the country are considered largely lawless.
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