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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 30 May 2006

DRC: Operation against militiamen displaces civilians in Ituri

BUNIA, 30 May 2006 (IRIN) - Civilians in Libi, a commercial centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo's embattled northeastern Ituri District, have fled into the bush following fighting between militia and the national army, which is supported by troops from the United Nations peacekeeping mission.

"Libi and the surrounding villages are empty of their inhabitants," said Idrissa Conteh, information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ituri, on Tuesday.

The exact figure of the displaced civilians has not been established, but Libi normally has a population of some 16,000. The commercial centre is between the Mahagi and Djugu territories and 100km north of Bunia, the main town in Ituri.

The military spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC), Stephane Lescofit, said the fighting began on Sunday, when the Congolese army, supported by peacekeepers, launched Operation Ituri Element III in an attempt to disarm militia loyal to the Front des Nationalistes et Intégrationnistes (FNI).

"One Nepalese blue helmet [soldier] was killed in the operation, three wounded and seven [have] disappeared," Lescofit said.

The wounded peacekeepers had been evacuated by car to Fataki, a town 20km south of Libi, and then by helicopter to a hospital in Bunia.

In a statement on Monday, MONUC said: Some militiamen claimed they had captured the seven peacekeepers, though they failed to provide any evidence. A search is underway in order to determine the fate of the missing blue helmets, while the operations against Ituri militias are ongoing."

The army spokesman in Ituri, Capt Olivier Mputu, said one Congolese soldier was wounded in the operation. There was no figure for casualties on the FNI side.

"It is difficult to know how many are dead. Many of them fell," Mputu said. "The area is a veritable jungle. It is only after two or three days that we will find some corpses when they begin to decompose."

The aim of the army-UN joint operations is to force the militia to give up their arms and join the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme that 14,000 other former militiamen in Ituri have already undergone. Some 12 UN peacekeepers have died in such operations since the beginning of 2006, bringing the death toll of UN troops to 74 since MONUC began its mission in the DRC in August 1999.

Meanwhile, MONUC has reinforced its position in Libi with 25 Nepalese UN peacekeepers from Mahagi as well as an MI-25 combat helicopter. MONUC also flew a mortar platoon from Bunia to Fataki.

[ENDS]

This material 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 this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006