Fleeing civilians jammed roads out of an eastern Congo city by the thousands to escape rival ethnic militias battling for control with mortars and machetes.
More than 10,000 frightened residents were gathered yesterday around a UN compound in Bunia and the nearby airport, seeking the protection of 625 Uruguayan troops stationed there.
At least 100 people have been confirmed killed in the fighting, including scores slain at a parish church where they had sought refuge. The chaos has made it impossible to determine the overall toll.
PHOTO: AP
UN officials and others have warned of possible genocide in Bunia and elsewhere in the Ituri province, where the rival Hema and Lendu tribes have been fighting since Uganda pulled out the last of its 6,000 troops on May 7.
Hemas, traditionally cattle-raisers, and Lendus, predominantly farmers, have grappled for centuries for land and other resources in east Congo. The rivalry has become more bloody because Ituri province around Bunia is rich with gold, and neighboring nations that became involved in wars in the Congo in the 1990s -- Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia -- had armed both sides as proxy militias.
The armies have withdrawn as part of a series of peace deals, but Uganda had warned that the final troop withdrawal would leave a security vacuum.
On Thursday, Congo's president and the factions' leaders began talks over easing the violence. UN workers, meanwhile, appealed to the crowds swarming its compound to move to the UN-controlled airport where thousands more have sought safety. They were offered a UN escort for the trip.
A UN commander tried to negotiate a 24-hour ceasefire to allow for the relocations, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York. It was not clear if that accounted for the easing of fighting.
People in Bunia also took advantage of a lull in fighting on Thursday to flee homes where many had been trapped for a week.
Aid workers flying over Bunia saw "a massive column of people" streaming toward Beni, 160km to the southwest, said Gemma Swart, a spokeswoman of a British aid group, Oxfam.
"They estimated that between 30,000 and 60,000 people are on that road alone," Swart said on Thursday by telephone from Goma, 370km southwest of Bunia.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appealed for more troop contributions for an international security force. Britain and France say they are weighing specific requests. Eckhard said others also have expressed interest in sending troops.
On Wednesday, rocket-propelled grenades hit near the base, killing five people, Eckhard said.
In Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania, Congo President Joseph Kabila and leaders of the tribal factions opened urgently convened talks to stem the bloodshed.
"The talks are at an early stage ... but there is optimism," Kabila spokesman Mulegwa Zihindula said.
"We are ready to negotiate with everybody," said Thomas Lubanga, leader of the key Hema militia, which sees Kabila's government as supporting its rivals.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese