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Ugandan rebels kill 400 in DR Congo: charity
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-31 10:36 KINSHASA -- Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels killed more than 400 people in Christmas massacres in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Caritas aid charity said Tuesday. The rebels denied any responsibility and accused troops from DR Congo, Uganda and South Sudan of "bombing" the victims, but a statement from the United Nations Secretary General condemned the alleged LRA atrocities Tuesday. The LRA targeted a town where a Christmas Day concert was being held and a Roman Catholic church, and attacks were going on along the Sudanese border, the Catholic charity said in a statement.
Caritas workers say that "over 400 people have been killed in the attacks in an area of northern Congo including Faradje, Duru, Gurba, Doruma, and Province Orientale," it added. The archbishop of Dungu-Doruma, Monsignor Richard Domba, said at least 150 people had been killed at a Christmas Day service at Faradje and later, 80 at Duru and at least 200 others at Doruma and in the surrounding villages, AFP reported. "It is a dramatic situation that we are living through here," he said. The rebels "are indescribably barbarous and savage. "They kill with machetes, axes and clubs. They burn people alive with their property in their homes." The LRA also "captured young boys and girls whom they will conscript and force to work in their fields," he said. In Bangadi, near the border with Sudan, 48 people died, and in Gurba 213 people were killed. Approximately 6,500 people have found refuge in the area with the Catholic church, Caritas said. "The rebels have committed terrible acts of violence," said the director of Caritas in Dungu-Doruma, Abbe Come Mbolingaba. "They decapitated several people. In the villages hardly anybody is moving. "Everyone is in psychological shock. The death toll could be above 400 because it is difficult to find all the bodies." Aid workers are worried by the lack of access in the region to local people who are wandering in search of shelter and help.
From New York, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the alleged LRA atrocities in a statement issued by his office Tuesday. "The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest possible terms the appalling atrocities reportedly committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in recent days" in both DRCongo and southern Sudan," it said. Ban called on the LRA to "respect all rules of international humanitarian law." He also repeated his support for the December 22 UN Security Council statement that "welcomed the joint measures taken by Uganda, DRC and southern Sudan to address the security threat posed by the LRA." |
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