EU says UPDF hampering Hema-Lendu peace efforts

The European Union (EU) on Thursday expressed its deep concern over continued reports of violent clashes between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups in the Bunia region of eastern DRC. Traditional rivalry between the two communities has been reinforced by the DRC conflict and “exacerbated by the continued military presence of the Ugandan army in this part of the DRC, which hampers efforts to re-establish peace there,” it said in a press release. Notwithstanding its firm position that foreign forces should withdrawn from the DRC in conformity with the Lusaka peace agreement, the EU called on Uganda, which it held responsible for upholding the respect for human rights in areas under their effective control, to do its utmost to put an end to massacres in the Bunia region. The European Union also called on the Ugandan authorities to use their influence with the Congolese rebel movements in the area - including the recently-created rebel coalition group, the Congolese Liberation Front (CLF) - to put an end to the clashes and massacres.

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The ICRC on Thursday stated that it had buried more than 200 people in Bunia after violent clashes between the Hema and Lendu in and around the city on 19 January. Staff and volunteers from the DRC Red Cross Society “removed bodies from the city streets and buried them so as to head off the threat of an epidemic,” the organisation stated in a press release. The resumption of hostilities, following a series of massacres since 1999, caused the displacement of part of the population of Bunia, and more than 2,000 people had found refuge in two schools in the city, it added.