UN to investigate reported massacre

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUC, is to send a team to investigate a reported massacre in Ituri District, eastern DRC, a MONUC official told IRIN.

According to local authorities, armed men said to belong to a militia group called the Front des nationalistes integrantistes (FNL) killed at least 100 people in Gobu, a lakeside village some 60 km north of the town of Bunia.

Bunia is the adminstrative capital of Ituri, which has been plagued by killings despite a peace agreement last year that paved the way for a transitional government in Congo and was expected to have ended years of fighting there. The area has been riven by ethnic violence blamed on groups fighting to control its mineral wealth.

On Thursday, officials of the FNL, MONUC and the local administration visited the site of the killings, which occurred on 16 January. MONUC spokeswoman Isabelle Albric said there were testimonies, but MONUC could not confirm them since it expected to send a mission to the area.

Emmanuel Leku, coordinator of the local administration, was among officials who travelled on Thursday to Gobu, located along Lake Albert. He reported witnesses as saying that the attackers, who numbered 24, had split up into groups of four or five, joined boats transporting displaced persons and traders to lakeside villages, and forced them to land at Gobu.

"When they arrived in Gobu the rebels separated the men from the women and children before shooting the men in groups of four, five or ten," Leku said.

Witnesses also said rebels raped two women, stole the passengers' belongings, then forced the women and children to carry the loot on their heads, according to Leku.

Leku claimed that the killings had occurred because of delays in deploying police in Ituri and expanding MONUC's presence there.