D.R. Congo: UN condemns Attack on Humanitarian Workers

By Daniel M. Austin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo – According to a United Nations relief agency, five humanitarian workers and two other civilians were killed on Tuesday, October 4 by rebels in South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The United Nations has called on the DRC government to thoroughly investigate this incident, capture the perpetrators, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. The United Nations Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) claims this was the deadliest attack on humanitarian aid workers in the country’s history.

United Nations personnel on patrol in Eastern DRC. (Photo courtesy of Capital FM News).

The attack occurred when rebels ambushed a vehicle transporting members of a local educational group in the city of Malinda. Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo blame the attack on members of the Congolese Mai Mai Yakatumba militia and rebel forces allied with Burundi’s National Liberation Front (FNL). In DRC, local and foreign militias fight each other and continue to terrorize the civilian population.

In a statement from the United Nations acting coordinator in DRC, Pierrette Vu Thi decried the violence and reiterated the need for the DRC government to take action to protect its citizens and members of national and international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Ms. Thi said “”We deplore with all our energy this aggression and all the other acts which hamper humanitarian work in DRC” and “we call on the Government to immediately open an inquiry to find the perpetrators of this odious act so as to bring them to justice.”

When asked by Reuters about this attack, local administrator, Selestin Kalume Mwanshima said “We are in the process of taking steps to secure the area. It’s each day that Yakatumba and its allies, the FNL and FDLR attack civilian vehicles, boats, even entire villages. This must stop.”

The National Liberation Forces, or FNL is a Burundian rebel group based in Congo that coordinates attacks in both DRC and in Burundi, including last month’s attack on a bar in Gatumda, Burundi that left more than 30 people dead. Meanwhile, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR is a Rwandan rebel group that has been operating in DRC for many years and is accused of carrying out numerous attacks against civilians, including killings and mass rapes.

The UN OCHA claims that roughly 40 incidents involving humanitarian aid workers have taken place since August 2011, 25 incidents taking place in the Nord-Kivu province, and another 15 taking place in Sud-Kivu province. Moreover, since January 2011, 140 such attacks have taken place. According to OCHA, ‘these incidents range from hold-ups to hostage-taking and the hijacking of humanitarian vehicles to transport military equipment.”

Beginning in 1999, and under a cadre of various names, the United Nations has supported a peacekeeping force of up to 20,000 uniformed personnel in DRC. The peacekeeping forces have helped DRC emerge from a fractious civil war and allowed national elections to take place in 2006, the first set of democratic elections in more than forty years. Notably, much of DRC, a nation as large as Western Europe, remains peaceful however; irregular fighting continues to plague the eastern portion of DRC. It is in the eastern portion of DRC where much of the United Nations mission, MONUSCO is focused.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera — ‘Rebels’ Kill Aid Workers in DR Congo — 06 October 2011

All Africa.com — UN Deplores Murder of Five Humanitarian Workers – 6 october 2011

Captial FM News — Rebels Kill Five Aid Workers, Two Others in DR Congo –07 October 2011

IC Publications — Rebels Kill Five Aid Workers, Two Others in DR Congo: UN – 06 October 2011

UN News Centre — DR Congo: UN deplores Murder of Five Humanitarian Workers – 6 October 2011

Author: Impunity Watch Archive