Sy Koumbo / MONUC
Ugandan Rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) attacked Bangadi; a locality situated 125 km from Dungu, Eastern Province, last Sunday at about 4 a.m.
6 Congolese people were killed in the attack, reports "Commission Justice et Paix" in Dungu and Durumo.
The rebels reportedly surrounded the village early morning and looted houses before torching them. Shocked by the recent attacks in Kiliwa and Duru in which 90 children were kidnapped, the population put up a stiff resistance against the rebels.
Reverend Kinalego Benoît, member of "Commission Justice et Paix" of the Catholic church of Dungu and Durumo whom we have been able to talk to on the phone said, "about a dozen rebels were killed and 1 Congolese citizen, by the name of Gbatamadi, seriously injured and admitted in a local hospital, besides the 6 Congolese killed." He highlighted that a group of displaced must now be heading for Niangana from the village of Bangadi, another group for Dungu and another one northward, to Durumo.
Laurence Gaubert, the chief of Doctors Without Borders in DRC fears that "the continued unpredictable LRA attacks may further increase the number of the displaced; if conditions do not improve rapidly, it would become impossible at some stage to intervene and the thousands displaced, in the absence of any assistance, may just flee into the forest." Following the month-long repeated attacks by LRA rebels on the populations of the Orientale Province, ICC decided yesterday to appeal the arrest of Joseph Kony, the chief of the Ugandan mystical movement.
Béatrice Lefrappeur, special advisor to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the international media that the current situation was caused by the failure to implement the arrest warrant against key LRA leaders.
"We believe that with the recent attacks perpetrated by Joseph Kony there would be no more option but to have him arrested. We are making arrangements so that the States of the region and the United Nations will plan Joseph Kony's arrest," she highlighted.