• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: UN Security Council discusses crisis in Bunia

NAIROBI, 13 May 2003 (IRIN) - The UN Security Council is exploring "all options" to see how it can best respond to the crisis in Bunia, UN News reported on Monday following consultations between members of the 15-nation body at UN headquarters in New York.

"The Council is seized of this very serious matter," Security Council President, Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan, said, adding that "all options were being explored" and the risks and challenges were being weighed in an effort to see how the Council should respond.

News agencies quoted UN diplomats as saying that the UN was seeking a "coalition of the willing" to make up a rapid reaction force and that France could take a leading role. However, no decision had been made and it could be several days before a course of action was decided.

On Monday, forces of the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC), a rebel group drawn from the Hema community, seized Bunia, the principal town of Ituri distict, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), following several days of fighting between rival Hema and Lendu militias. The UN Mission to the DRC, MONUC, said that Lendu militiamen who had been holding Bunia withdrew after a two-hour battle.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said that at least 12 people, including three babies, were killed at the home of a leading Hema political figure during a clash on Saturday. The fighting has forced thousands of people to flee their homes. Eckhard said that on Monday the UN took fresh water and medicines to some 8,000 to 10,000 people who have sought refuge at a UN compound near the airport.

Floribert Ndjabu Ngabu, the leader of the Front des nationalistes et integrationalistes (FNI), a rebel group drawn from the Lendu community, told news agencies in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, that his forces had "retreated to other areas".

Ngabu accused Rwanda of giving support to the UPC in the fight for Bunia. Both Rwanda and Uganda have been accused of manipulating longstanding tensions between the Hema and Lendu tribes in order to exploit the region's important natural resources. The upsurge in fighting between the two ethnic groups followed the withdrawal over the past few weeks of Ugandan troops who had been occupying the town.

Aid groups have called on the UN to strengthen the mandate of MONUC troops in Bunia, which currently number around 700. The international aid organisation Medair, which provides medical assistance in the region, called for an urgent reinforcement of the mandate so that MONUC troops could protect civilians and allow humanitarian organisations to function.

On Monday the acting president of the African Union, Amara Essay, appealed to the Security Council to give MONUC troops a mandate which would enable them to "impose peace on this martyred region".

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

The material contained on this Web site comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post any item on this site, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All graphics and Images on this site may not be re-produced without the express permission of the original owner. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003