6 dead in Congo army mutiny

KINSHASA – Hundreds of mutinous soldiers shot dead at least six people and ransacked shops and houses during a day-long pillage in western Congo over the weekend, a local official said on Monday.

The soldiers went on the rampage in the town of Mbandaka, 600km northeast of Kinshasa, on Sunday after they found the mutilated body of one of their colleagues, UN and local officials said. “Some are saying nine people have been killed but I now know six people were shot dead by the soldiers,” Albert Donatien Bekalola, mayor of the town of Mbandaka, told Reuters by telephone on Monday.”Most of the shooting has stopped and most of the soldiers have returned to their barracks,” Bekalola said.”But they pillaged lots – they went into people’s houses and demanded money.If none was given, they pillaged the shop or house.”Bekalola said that around 20 people had been injured on Sunday and he feared more may die from their bullet wounds.Mbandaka lies in a region of Democratic Republic of Congo which has largely escaped fighting that has rumbled on in other areas since a wider five-year civil war was declared over.The rampaging soldiers were former members of the People’s Armed Forces of Congo (FAPC), one of many rebel factions meant to have been integrated into Congo’s new army after the conflict officially ended in 2003.Bekalola said an unknown number of the former militiamen had been arrested but some of the soldiers sent in to restore order had ended up participating in the looting.Quoting the local Red Cross, United Nations radio said nine people had been killed.But the president of the Red Cross in Mbandaka said he was completing his investigation and could not yet make a statement on the toll.Congo’s conflict killed around 4 million people, mainly from war-related hunger and disease, in a nation roughly the size of western Europe.Despite the 2003 peace deal, the resource-rich country has seen little economic progress and the government has failed to impose its authority over vast areas of the east, where armed gangs still pillage and kill with impunity.Human Rights Watch says FAPC members tortured 24 civilians and killed six of them in the volatile northeastern district of Ituri last October, putting them in a makeshift underground prison at a military base and beating them with sticks.Some of the most feared Ituri warlords, including the FAPC’s Jerome Kakwavu, were made generals in the national army in January, a move meant to help the dismantling of rebel groups.- Nampa-Reuters”Some are saying nine people have been killed but I now know six people were shot dead by the soldiers,” Albert Donatien Bekalola, mayor of the town of Mbandaka, told Reuters by telephone on Monday.”Most of the shooting has stopped and most of the soldiers have returned to their barracks,” Bekalola said.”But they pillaged lots – they went into people’s houses and demanded money.If none was given, they pillaged the shop or house.”Bekalola said that around 20 people had been injured on Sunday and he feared more may die from their bullet wounds.Mbandaka lies in a region of Democratic Republic of Congo which has largely escaped fighting that has rumbled on in other areas since a wider five-year civil war was declared over.The rampaging soldiers were former members of the People’s Armed Forces of Congo (FAPC), one of many rebel factions meant to have been integrated into Congo’s new army after the conflict officially ended in 2003.Bekalola said an unknown number of the former militiamen had been arrested but some of the soldiers sent in to restore order had ended up participating in the looting.Quoting the local Red Cross, United Nations radio said nine people had been killed.But the president of the Red Cross in Mbandaka said he was completing his investigation and could not yet make a statement on the toll.Congo’s conflict killed around 4 million people, mainly from war-related hunger and disease, in a nation roughly the size of western Europe.Despite the 2003 peace deal, the resource-rich country has seen little economic progress and the government has failed to impose its authority over vast areas of the east, where armed gangs still pillage and kill with impunity.Human Rights Watch says FAPC members tortured 24 civilians and killed six of them in the volatile northeastern district of Ituri last October, putting them in a makeshift underground prison at a military base and beating them with sticks.Some of the most feared Ituri warlords, including the FAPC’s Jerome Kakwavu, were made generals in the national army in January, a move meant to help the dismantling of rebel groups.- Nampa-Reuters