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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: MONUC offices come under fire in Bunia, one peacekeeper wounded

NAIROBI, 6 November 2003 (IRIN) - One UN peacekeeping soldier was wounded on Wednesday when the offices of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) in the northeastern town of Bunia came under fire.

"A UN military observer of Bangladeshi nationality was shot in the leg," Leocadio Salmeron, the MONUC spokesman in Bunia, the main town in Ituri District, told reporters.

"The attacks came from the area around the residences of leaders of the UPC [Union des patriotes congolais, a primarily ethnic Hema militia] but also from the Yambi neighbourhood, which is mainly inhabited by ethnic Lendus," Salmeron said.

He added that gunfire was exchanged from 8.30 p.m. until 11.30 a.m. Assailant casualties were unknown and MONUC said it had not yet determined their identity.

"There was gunfire throughout the town until four in the morning," Piet Kanyinda, the owner of a hotel near MONUC's offices, told IRIN. "MONUC tanks and armoured vehicles patrolled all during the night."

A representative of the Ituri interim administration, Deogratias Amandiyo, said the UPC attacked MONUC's offices and the home of Ituri interim administrator Emmanuel Leku Apuobo, in response to MONUC's refusal to authorise the militia to hold a meeting.

Although the UPC had received written authorisation from Leku to hold a meeting, MONUC denied it permission. "All public meetings are prohibited for the time being," Salmeron said.

UPC security officer Rafiki Saba, taking issue with the decision, said, "MONUC has allowed other armed groups to hold meetings, but it prohibits us from meeting so that we can become a political party."

Insecurity in Bunia has once again become a primary concern for humanitarian organisations in the region, some of whom have considered evacuating their staff.

"A meeting was convened by MONUC in order to plan for the possible evacuation of certain personnel," one aid worker told IRIN.

"For the moment, the situation appears to have calmed, and since three in the morning MONUC [has] gained control of the situation," Seraphin Kazadi, of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bunia, told IRIN.

"But if another episode such as this takes place, we will be obliged to evacuate," he said.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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