1. Home
  2. Africa
  3. DRC

UN mediates in aftermath of conflict in Mbuji-Mayi

[DRC] Members of MONUC's Ituri Brigade on patrol in Bunia, 31 August 2003. IRIN
Troupes de la Monuc
The UN is mediating among political parties in Mbuji-Mayi, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Kasai Oriental Province, following last week's violence. The UN Mission in the country, known as MONUC, sent additional peacekeepers to the city on Friday to beef up security. "MONUC finds it necessary to have a stronger presence to help diffuse this crisis as well as to ensure against similar crises in the future," Mamady Kouyate, the head of the mediation effort for MONUC, told IRIN on Monday. Violent demonstrations last week left at least two people dead and 12 others wounded. The offices of all the main political parties in the province were ransacked and burned. One of the parties is veteran opposition politician Etienne Tshisekedi's l'Union pour la democratie et le progres Social (UDPS); another is President Joseph Kabila's Parti du peuple pour la reconstruction et le developpement, and a third is Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement pour la Liberation du Congo. UDPS Secretary-General Remy Masamba accused local authorities of setting fire to the party's office during a curfew. He also said the police made arbitrarily arrests of UDPS members and mistreated them. Speaking from Mbuji-Mayi on Monday, Masamba told IRIN that according to witnesses, the Kasai Oriental governor, Dominique Kanku, was directly responsible for the damage. He said UDPS would file a lawsuit against Kanku. However, Kanku denied Masamba's accusations. Kanku said either the UDPS "burned their own offices" or members of other parties did it in reprisal. Most of Tuesday's demonstrators were members of the UPDS, he said. The protests were over an expected decision by the national assembly to postpone general elections. Kabila has announced that the elections, initially due in June, will now be held in the same month in 2006. Kouyate said MONUC was organising a peace forum to be held in the coming weeks and that the three main parties had all agreed to take part. One of the purposes of the forum would be to improve the conditions of the three million inhabitants of Mbuji-Mayi. Currently, less than 3 percent to 5 percent of the city's residents have water and electricity.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join