Cannibalism rife in fight for Congo town

By BASILDON PETA

Reports of mass murder and cannibalism emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as French military officers arrived yesterday to assess the possibility of France deploying peacekeeping troops.

Aid workers said they had found 231 bodies of people killed since May 4 on the streets of Bunia, in the north-east, including women and children. Some were decapitated, others had hearts, livers and lungs missing.

United Nations officials already investigating reports of cannibalism have asked the European Union and Britain to send troops.

Britain was considering the request for peacekeepers, a Foreign Office spokesman said. An EU official said it might send its recently formed rapid reaction force.

The aid workers warned the death toll could rise because they had searched only nine of the town's 12 neighbourhoods.

The Hema and Lendu tribes have been battling for control of Bunia, the capital of resource-rich Ituri province.

Aid agency officials in the republic and neighbouring countries said they were getting fresh reports of cannibalism from the thousands of civilians fleeing to safety from Bunia.

In January, UN officials said they had substantiated reports that ethnic militias were killing Congo bushmen, also known as pygmies, for food.

Aid workers said they were being told of ethnic militia members feeding on hearts and livers from bodies of civilians belonging to other ethnic groups. They said reports of such murders were common in the eastern part of the Congo.

One added: "Sometimes you don't have to see these atrocities to believe. The misery and fear of the fleeing civilians is enough to make you believe the extent of the atrocities."

Amos Namanga Ngongi, head of the UN mission in Congo, said reports of cannibalism were "too persistent to be entirely without foundation".

Child soldiers interviewed by the Independent at a rehabilitation centre in the Congo, said some of them were forced to resort to cannibalism because they were not given food, uniforms or equipment when they were deployed to fight.

The problems in the Congo started in 1998 when then-President Joseph Kabila, who had seized power in a bloody war against Mobutu SeSe Seko, himself faced a rebellion supported by Rwanda and Uganda.

The anti-Kabila rebellion splintered into factions supported by various countries. At its peak, the conflict sucked in six foreign armies and was known as "Africa's World War".

Aid workers believe thousands of civilians have been killed in the Congo in the past month.

A UN force of 700 failed to halt the violence.

- INDEPENDENT