Samuel Unega fled to Bunia last year to escape tribal fighting in his hometown. But the fighting seemed to have followed him. Three weeks ago, Lendu fighters raided his makeshift home and hacked his skull with machetes. On Saturday, he died.
In some ways, his son-in-law said, Unega, 70, was luckier than hundreds of others who have been killed in the latest round of fighting between the rival Lendu and Hema tribes.
"He will be buried properly instead of being left to rot on the street and eaten by dogs as happened to many people two weeks ago," Joseph Bamunoba, a Protestant minister, said of the fighting for control of this northeastern Congolese town.
The crisis in Bunia, capital of the troubled Ituri district that is rich in natural resources, began on May 7 after Uganda withdrew its 6,000 troops as part of a peace deal with Congo. Lendu and Hema groups swept into the once bustling market town, fighting savage street battles.
Red Cross workers have buried at least 415 people, but aid workers say the real toll is much higher.
Unega, father of 13, died hours after the UN Security Council on Friday authorized the deployment of a French-led international force in Bunia. The force, expected to arrive in Congo by the middle of next week, is separate from a regular UN force already in area.
Three weeks ago, Unega was sitting around in the yard with some friends one afternoon when the Lendu attackers walked in and started hacking them with machetes without uttering a word. They later moved on to other compounds and hacked others to death.
"The assailants walked into the compound and found him sitting with a friend from Nyankunde and another man," said Fatuma Ayubu, one of Unega's granddaughters.
"They attacked them with machete blows on their heads, killing one man on the spot and leaving Grandpa and the young man for dead," she added.
"People say these are tribal killings, but the old man was neither a Lendu nor a Hema. He was member of the Alur community, but the Lendu attacked him anyway," said a friend Ayubu Lubinga, who fled to Bunia after Lendu fighters killed more than 400 people in Bogoro. The Lendu seized the town 40km southwest of Bunia in February.
Residents hope the new, temporary UN force will restore peace and order.
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