Jury out on Makobola massacre

Journalists who recently visited the alleged massacre site of Makobola in south Kivu told IRIN they found no firm evidence that an atrocity had occurred. “Something happened but we don’t know the scale,” one journalist who accompanied an RCD investigation team said. “My impression was that there was a [RCD] counter-offensive which was pretty indiscriminate.” DRC refugees in Tanzania claimed that up to 500 people were killed in the village over the New Year in reprisal for a Mayi-Mayi attack on an RCD unit in the area. RCD officials said the civilian death toll did not exceed 10 people, who were caught in crossfire. Journalists reported Makobola residents as saying there had been a massacre, but could find no mass graves during their short stay.