The United Nations is reporting 90 dead after an attack in eastern Congo by Hutu militia. As many of 60 of the dead were civilians.
The
Hutu militia is made up of the Hutu ethnic group that has been accused of being part of genocide during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The victims there were of the Tutsi minority.
This year the Congolese and Rwandan armies worked together to try to flush out the
Hutu militia from eastern Congo where they have set up in the hills.
Large numbers of the fighters have turned themselves in. The program looked like it was making headway in the beginning but within weeks the Hutus were able to reclaim the land that they had lost. Aid groups have warned that the rebels might begin to carry out revenge actions on the local villagers to get back at the governments.
Those that remain in the hills however have become increasingly violent against local villagers have seen those early warning come to light.
Reuters reports:
"The offensive against the FDLR (Rwandan Hutu rebels) began a spiral of violence against civilians which has forced 250,000 to flee their homes and caused untold death and suffering that continues to this day." said Marcel Stoessel, head of Oxfam in Kinshasa.
Disturbing reports have been reported that 'The Terminator,' General Bosco Ntaganda has been working with the United Nations mission in the Congo. Ntaganda is wanted by the International Criminal Court for his alleged forced enrollment of children in 2002-2003. The
BBC has talked to sources that confirm that the former leader of rebel forces is in a top level position. The UN says that the alleged war criminal is not working with the peacekeeping force in DR Congo.
"Monuc has been in very close touch with the Congolese authorities working with the Congolese military," spokesman Kevin Kennedy told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
"A document has been shared with Monuc concerning the command for the operations that Monuc is working on with the FADRC (Congolese national army).
"Bosco Ntaganda's name does not appear on that document, so we have from our Congolese counterparts an assurance that he is not part of the command."
