Ethnic clashes intensify on Ugandan border

At least 2,000 people from the Hema community strove to cross the river Semileke to escape attacks from the rival Lendu community on the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda on Thursday, according to humanitarian sources. “It seemed like a slaughter, a real attempt to wipe these people out,” a humanitarian official on the ground told IRIN. He witnessed “mutilated bodies, speared, cut up with machetes” floating in the Semileke river. Women and children with gunshot, spear and arrow wounds found refuge in Ugandan clinics. First across were Hema men with their cattle, fleeing what humanitarian sources described as a “well organised and coordinated attack”. The Lendu attack, led on two fronts by fighters well-equipped with light weapons and telecommunications equipment, led to unconfirmed reports of a coalition between former Zairean soldiers (ex-FAZ), Mayi-Mayi militiamen and Lendu fighters who previously had only spears and machetes as weapons. Combatants from the Lendu community advanced to Gethy and Boga, southwest of the town of Bunia in the eastern DRC province of Ituri on Friday, according to local sources, and are thought to be heading towards Kasenyi and Tchomia. High casualties were suffered following fighting in Bogoro on Tuesday where the Ugandan military was forced to abandon position before reinforcements broke up the fighting on Wednesday. Local and international humanitarian NGOs are anticipating the arrival of some 30,000 displaced people in Bunia. “If fighting erupts in Bunia we may be facing a much larger problem,” a humanitarian official told IRIN.