July 2001 Africa News Headlines

Monday, July 23, 2001 - Web posted at 12:21:29 GMT

Over 100 killed in DRC violence

GOMA - More than 100 people have been killed since January in clashes between armed groups in Rusizi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a human rights group claimed.

Of the 104 people killed, 13 triggered anti-personnel mines while the others died when the Rusizi plain "became a battlefield between several armed groups," the League of Rights organisation in the Great Lakes region reported in the latest edition of its monthly magazine Amani.

The plain, formed by the Rusizi river and bordering Burundi, is under the control of the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) rebel group, but is also home to a number of other armed outfits.

These include two Burundian Hutu rebel groups, the National Liberation Forces (FNL) and the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), tribal militias, Mai-Mai guerrillas and other unidentified armed groups.

The League of Rights, which operates in the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi, also denounced the "multiplication of militia" in Uvira, in the DRC's South Kivu province."

"The town already has three militia groups, the civil defence units of the RCD rebels, the Banyamulenge fighters (a local militia) and Mai-Mai guerrillas," the organisation said.

It said the proliferation of the militia "constitutes a bomb which only takes a spark one day to detonate and to see Uvira burning."
- Nampa-Sapa-AFP

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