UN troops attacked in DRC

2005-06-28 09:40

Kinshasa - Hundreds of United Nations (UN) peacekeepers, backed by attack helicopters, on Monday fought militiamen in an eight-hour battle in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) troubled Ituri region, the UN said.

"Our forces were conducting search operations in the locality of Medu (just north of the regional capital Bunia) when they were attacked by a group of militia fighters whose identity we could not ascertain," said a spokesperson for the UN force known as Monuc.

He was not able to give casualty figures resulting from the skirmish that took place on Monday in the northeastern region but said no peacekeepers were injured.

There are an estimated 1 000 armed militants left in the Ituri region where inter-ethnic clashes near the Ugandan border have claimed at least 60 000 lives and displaced more than 500 000 people since 1999.

In Monday's incident, some 150 militiamen armed with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars began firing at the UN troops at the start of their search operation, said Monuc's military spokesperson Thierry Provendier.

Some 300 UN peacekeepers, backed by two M125 attack helicopters, were involved in the clash, he said.

After eight hours of fighting the militiamen began retreating, he said.

Militia groups rampant in the region, well-armed because of the weaponry that flooded the DRC during its devastating 1999-2003 war, are routinely accused of committing documented atrocities and human rights abuses which have emptied villages of their terrified populations.

UN forces deployed across the vast DRC in a 16 700-strong mission are seeking to bring peace to a country riven by years of war and oversee the introduction of democracy by President Joseph Kabila's current broad-based regime.

- AFP