Residents of burnt out village begin to return

Some 2,500 half-naked people have so far returned to their ruined homes, one week after militias burnt down the village of She in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the spokeswoman for the UN peacekeeping mission in the area, Rachel Eklou, said on Tuesday.

"MONUC arrived in the village on Saturday and stayed there until Sunday, and its presence is what encouraged the first group of 120 villagers to come out of hiding," Eklou said.

The deployment of UN troops has enabled humanitarian actors to enter She, 60 km northeast of Bunia, the main town in Ituri District, Orientale Province. One humanitarian body, German Agro Action, delivered food rations to the returnees on Tuesday, and MONUC has been using helicopters to provide clean drinking water.

The interim coordinator of German Agro Action, Rudi Sterz, told IRIN on Friday that armed militias, who have been fighting each other in the area since December 2004, set fire to She residents, most of whom are of the Hema ethnic group.

Hema witnesses told MONUC that the rival Lendu militia had attacked their village, and presented MONUC with a list of 15 people they said were killed during the attack. Some 30 others are missing, presumably taken hostage by the attackers. Eklou said the village had been attacked repeatedly for several months now.

MONUC is investigating the circumstances surrounding the attack and who is responsible. The l'Union des patriotes congolais militia group, headed by Thomas Lubanga, and the Front des nationalistes integrationnistes, have accused each other.

[On the Net: DRC: Militiamen burn down Ituri village]