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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: MONUC military observers confirmed dead

KINSHASA, 19 May 2003 (IRIN) - Two UN military observers reported missing from Wednesday have been confirmed dead, the spokesman of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), Hamadoun Toure, told IRIN on Monday.

Speaking from the eastern town of Bunia, he said the bodies of the two observers were discovered on Sunday in Mongualu, 17 km north of Bunia.

"They were savagely killed. We could not tell immediately who did this," he said.

MONUC, he added, had set up a team to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killing of the observers, said to be of Jordanian and Nigerian nationalities.

Toure said the area in which their bodies were found was in the control of Front des Nationalistes et Integrationnistes (FNI) militias led by Floribat Ndjambu. Toure said this was the first time UN military observers had been killed in an area controlled by militias. Several other MONUC military personnel have died following mine accidents or illness, Toure said.

The bodies of the observers have been taken to Bunia pending their airlifting to the DRC capital, Kinshasa, from where they will be flown to their respective countries.

Bunia, the principal town of the troubled Ituri District, Orientale Province, has been embroiled in fighting between rival ethnic militia groups since 6 April when the Ugandan army that had been occupying the town withdrew.

On Friday, DRC President Joseph Kabila and five armed groups active in Ituri signed a ceasefire agreement in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which seems to be holding. The Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) rebel group led by Thomas Lubanga now control Bunia, although MONUC has about 700 Uruguayan troops patrolling its streets.

Meanwhile, an advance team of 12 French troops arrived in Kinshasa on Sunday, to prepare for the arrival of a French contingent expected to help in maintaining peace in Ituri, Toure said on Monday.

"It is a reconnaissance team," Toure said.

The team, he added, was meeting the UN special envoy in the DRC, Amos Namanga Ngongi, in Kisangani on Monday. The team is expected in Bunia on Tuesday.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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