8 killed in DRC tribal clashes
2006-11-20 17:31
Kinshasa - Five days of fighting between two tribes has left eight people dead and 27 wounded at Bolobo in the west of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said a hospital doctor in the town on Monday.
"Eight people were killed" mainly with arrows and machetes, said Delly Mangombo, the doctor in charge of Bolobo hospital, and "27 people have been wounded".
Mangombo added that in clashes from last Tuesday until Saturday between the Nunu tribe and the Tende people, about 100 houses and two churches were burned down, and many of Bolobo's population of more than 15 000 fled to outlying villages or into the forest.
By Monday, residents had begun returning to their houses in Bolobo, which lies in Bandundu province about 300km north of Kinshasa, said Mangombo.
"The difficult cohabitation between the two tribes, which frequently argue over arable land, is behind this violence," said a local administrative official, asking not to be named.
Most of the victims were Nunu people, who make up 60% of Bolobo's population and are blamed by the Tende minority - about 30% - for taking most of the best pastureland and fishing spots in the area on the bank of the Congo River, he said.
Interior minister general Denis Kalume Numbi arrived in Bolobo on Sunday to encourage a settlement between the two communities and on Monday he visited those who were wounded, added the official.
- SAPA