Congolese Militia Beheads Dozens of Police Officers
Source: nytimes
By STEVE WEMBIMARCH 25, 2017
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Members of a militia ambushed and then beheaded about 40 police officers on Friday in a central province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said on Saturday.
In recent months, the provinces in the Kasai region, in south-central Congo, have been the scene of fighting between the police and a local tribal militia called Kamuina Nsapu. Violence in the area has claimed more than 300 lives since August and displaced more than 200,000 people.
Military authorities reported on Friday that they had lost contact with a police convoy from the capital, Kinshasa, that was making its way toward Kananga, southeast of the capital.
François Kalamba, the speaker of the Kasai provincial assembly, confirmed on Saturday that the convoy had been ambushed by Kamuina Nsapu fighters between the city of Tshikapa and Kananga, and that about 40 officers had been decapitated....................
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I am just speechless when I read horrible articles like this.
Photo
Uruguayan peacekeepers in Congo this month. Mounting accusations of violence against civilians and the discovery of mass graves in the Kasai-Central province have prompted the chief of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo to urge the U.N. Security Council to press the government to open an investigation. Credit Aaron Ross/Reuters
= new reply since forum marked as read
can rightfully claim to be the Good Guys.
I just can't understand how homicidal and evil people can be all over this world.
And the conditions many people live under make me feel ashamed of myself for complaining about some trivial problems I think I have.
or that a young American working with the U.N.was abducted there 2 weeks ago, and his fate is unknown. Too busy playing golf, staging "campaign rallies," posing like a 4-year-old in the cab of a truck, and tweeting about Fox TV shows.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/03/25/dr-congo-no-word-missing-un-team
?itok=9kFrEgyX
....Those missing are Michael Sharp, an American; Zaida Catalán, a Swede; Betu Tshintela, a Congolese interpreter; Isaac Kabuayi, a driver; and two unidentified motorbike drivers. They were investigating widespread human rights abuses near the remote village of Bunkonde, south of the provincial capital, Kananga.
“We are extremely worried about the missing UN team,” said Ida Sawyer, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Congolese government should cooperate fully with the UN and other international investigators to do all they can to bring the team back safely.”
On March 13, the Congolese government announced that Sharp and Catalán had “fallen into the hands of unidentified negative forces,” but has provided no additional information.
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This is the first time that UN experts have been reported missing in Congo, Human Rights Watch said. It is also the first recorded disappearance or abduction of international workers in the Kasai provinces, a region that until recently had been largely peaceful, unlike eastern Congo, which has long been embattled by dozens of armed groups.
The UN Group of Experts on Congo, established in 2004, consists of six experts appointed by the UN secretary-general to monitor the Security Council’s sanctions regime for Congo and to propose individuals and entities to be added to the sanctions list. The experts collect and analyze information about armed group activities, their networks, arms trafficking, and those responsible for serious human rights violations. Their reports are among the most comprehensive and reliable sources of information about conflict dynamics in the Great Lakes region of Africa.
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Since large-scale violence erupted in the Kasai region in August 2016, more than 400 people have been killed and more than 200,000 displaced from their homes, according to the UN. Human Rights Watch has received reports of scores of people killed in recent weeks.
The violence in the Kasai region is purportedly about customary control over local chieftaincies, but there are also clear ties to national political dynamics, with the Congolese army backing the leadership of people seen to be loyal to President Joseph Kabila and his political coalition, and the Kamuina Nsapu militia groups supporting people seen to be closer to the opposition.
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The militia has recruited large numbers of children, and its members believe in magic powers that they say make them impervious to bullets. Carrying sticks and other crude weapons, militia members have attacked security forces and some government buildings in Kasai, Kasai Central, Kasai Oriental, Sankuru, and Lomami provinces.
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Over two dozen mass graves have been reported in three Kasai provinces since January. Five videos have also emerged from the Kasais in recent weeks, showing soldiers firing on unarmed or lightly armed alleged militia members, including many women and children.
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