Soldiers went on an overnight looting and shooting spree in a sprawling refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), stealing from hungry and traumatized people who have fled fighting in the country’s east, witnesses said Monday.
They said one woman was killed by a stray bullet on Sunday night in Kibati, a village north of the eastern provincial capital of Goma that has been overrun by about 70,000 refugees.
Patrice Sebahunde, 60, said he was awakened at 10pm by four soldiers pointing guns in his face. They took his family’s food, clothes and their plastic water bucket.
“They came up, pointed a gun at me, and said, ‘Wake up, wake up, give us money and everything you have,’” Sebahunde said.
Bernard Udafuye said his house also was looted by soldiers Sunday night who stole food and a bucket but he did not blame them.
“It was just an accident, that they stole from us,” he said. “They are hungry.”
Witnesses said the soldiers shot in the air, and that one stray bullet hit a 45-year-old woman in the head, killing her instantly. A 20-year-old woman was killed at Kibati on Thursday night when a bullet pierced her tent and hit her in the head.
UN refugee officials who had reported Thursday’s shooting said they had no information about any violence on Sunday.
“Shooting is not something you can easily hide,” said spokesman David Nthegwe, who added that a two-year-old girl died of sickness, possibly malaria, at the camp on Sunday night. “Our information on the ground last night says there was no looting and nobody was killed.”
But at least 10 witnesses who spoke separately to The Associated Press told the same story.
“Last night soldiers came here to the camp to cause trouble,” said Maria Mukawera, 47. “They came to steal. They started shooting in the air. I saw it with my own eyes.”
Sunday’s rampage followed an afternoon showdown between soldiers and UN peacekeepers outside the camp.
Soldiers stopped the peacekeepers’ convoy at an impromptu roadblock and dragged 23 Congolese men off the trucks, accusing them of being rebels. UN officials said the men were rebels who had surrendered as well as national policemen and civilians.
During the incident, people hurled stones at the peacekeepers’ vehicles, angry at the organization’s failure to protect them. One peacekeeper was injured, UN military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich said.
In related news, Human Rights Watch said in a report yesterday that the DR Congo government had killed “at least 500” suspected political opponents in the last two years.
The New York-based rights campaigners accused DR Congo President Joseph Kabila’s government of “brutal repression,” saying “about 1,000 more” have been detained since July 2006 elections aimed at bringing democracy to the vast central African nation.
The NGO said many of those held reported having been tortured.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia