Draft deal proposed to end ethnic conflict in Ituri

The territorial administration commission of the rebel RCD-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML) has facilitated the preparation of a draft treaty aimed at returning peace and security to the Djugu area of Ituri District in northeastern DRC (which has been wracked by sporadic conflict between the pastoralist Hema and agriculturalist Lendu groups), according to an RCD-ML press release received by IRIN. In a “working document” launched in Bunia on 21 December, Hema and Lendu representatives had called for a mutual pardon of the wrongs done to the others’ community and set out the basis for a cessation of hostilities, it said. Protagonists in the Hema and Lendu communities could still propose amendments but the outline agreement represented a gesture of “generosity, tolerance and solidarity,” and should satisfy all parties, RCD-ML official Jacques Depelchin said.