Rival Hema and Lendu communities sign peace pact

The rival Hema and Lendu communities in the Bunia area of northeastern DRC have signed a pact aimed at restoring peace to their troubled region. According to sources on the ground, the agreement was brokered by Congolese Liberation Front (CLF) leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. The protocol, signed on Saturday, provides for disarmament and an immediate cessation of hostilities. Training centres for militiamen will be dismantled, military movements and border crossings controlled, peace tribunals will be set up and prisons rehabilitated. Furthermore, the accord states, the Congolese Liberation Army will secure road sections and axes to enable the free movement of goods and people. As the Hema-Lendu conflict was traditionally sparked by land disputes, the agreement also states that collective grazing rights in the disputed territory of Djugu will be restored and a solidarity fund established to rehabilitate areas wracked by the conflict, whose resurgence has killed thousands of people over the last 18 months. Both ethnic groups will send representatives into the rural areas to sensitise residents on peaceful co-existence and mutual tolerance. A follow-up commission will monitor and move the process forward.