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Monuc Military Observers Confirmed Dead

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
May 19, 2003
Posted to the web May 19, 2003
Kinshasa
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.

   

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