Mayi-Mayi release five more hostages

A Congolese Mayi-Mayi militia calling itself the Resistance nationale de Lumumba (Lumumba National Resistance) on Tuesday released five more Thai hostages who had been held captive in eastern DRC since 15 May, rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) told AFP on Wednesday. The release of the five, following that of two Thais and a Swede last week, followed the mediation of church groups and NGOs, according to humanitarian sources. The newly-released Thais were in Butembo, in North Kivu, on Wednesday and were likely to be flown to the Ugandan capital, Kampala, as soon as possible, they added. The BBC quoted Thai diplomatic sources as saying that there was hope the remaining captives (17 Thai and one Kenyan) would be released soon. The Thai ambassador in Nairobi, Tanarat Thanaputhi, told the BBC that his government had agreed to provide medical aid and build schools and hospitals in the militiamen’s area after they released all the hostages and not just the Thai nationals. The kidnapping took place after a raid on a logging camp in Mangina, a town 32 km outside Beni, which is controlled by Bemba’s MLC, in northeastern DRC, near the border with Uganda. The Thais worked for Dara-Forest, a Thai-Ugandan logging company based in Mangina. The Mayi-Mayi kidnappers accused the company of exploiting the natural resources of the DRC, according to news reports. In a declaration on 1 June, the Resistance nationale de Lumumba stated that it would release the hostages in exchange for the “unconditional withdrawal of foreign troops on Congolese soil”.