Poll worker killed in DRC’s Ituri region

KINSHASA – A voter registration worker has been killed in the Ituri region in the volatile east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during an attack by militias, the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) said yesterday.

The attack took place on Monday at Bule, the main town in Ituri, at a newly set-up voter registration centre as the DRC transition government has begun the massive task of registering a potential 28 million voters for elections expected to be held next June. “The attack by militias at Bule left one person dead among the permanent witnesses working at the different voter registration centres,” MONUC spokesman Moussa Demba Diallo told AFP.An investigation has been launched to find the attackers, he added.The area around Bule is plagued with two militia groups, the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC/L) and the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI).The DRC electoral commission moved its offices from Bule to nearby Fataki to continue its voter registration operations, a UN source told AFP.The electoral commission launched its work late last month in the eastern DRC, an unstable region of anti-Kinshasa militias where violence has claimed more than 60 000 lives since 1999, according to humanitarian groups.The United Nations and Kinshasa have been negotiating with the militiamen, estimated between 1 000 to 2 500, to disarm and join in the DRC transition government and end the reign of terror in the east.The government announced on Sunday that about 10 000 soldiers will be sent to the three eastern provinces of Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu and Ituri to provide security during the electoral process.The DRC, under supervision of a MONUC force, is currently engaged in a transition toward holding its first democratic election in 40 years by June 2006, following years of war that have ravaged the resource-rich but poverty-stricken central African country.- Nampa-AFP”The attack by militias at Bule left one person dead among the permanent witnesses working at the different voter registration centres,” MONUC spokesman Moussa Demba Diallo told AFP.An investigation has been launched to find the attackers, he added.The area around Bule is plagued with two militia groups, the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC/L) and the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI).The DRC electoral commission moved its offices from Bule to nearby Fataki to continue its voter registration operations, a UN source told AFP.The electoral commission launched its work late last month in the eastern DRC, an unstable region of anti-Kinshasa militias where violence has claimed more than 60 000 lives since 1999, according to humanitarian groups.The United Nations and Kinshasa have been negotiating with the militiamen, estimated between 1 000 to 2 500, to disarm and join in the DRC transition government and end the reign of terror in the east.The government announced on Sunday that about 10 000 soldiers will be sent to the three eastern provinces of Nord-Kivu, Sud-Kivu and Ituri to provide security during the electoral process.The DRC, under supervision of a MONUC force, is currently engaged in a transition toward holding its first democratic election in 40 years by June 2006, following years of war that have ravaged the resource-rich but poverty-stricken central African country.- Nampa-AFP