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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Western Congo violence killed 68, U.N. reports say |
| 2008-03-18 |
| At least 68 people were killed in a two-week government crackdown against separatists in Democratic Republic of Congo's western Bas-Congo province, according to internal U.N. reports seen by Reuters on Monday. Starting on Feb. 28, hundreds of soldiers and police battled members of the ethnic-based political and religious movement Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) in an operation that initially began at Luozi, 200 km (125 miles) west of the capital Kinshasa. BDK is campaigning for reestablishment of the pre-colonial Kongo kingdom, which encompasses parts of present-day Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo and Gabon. After the violence at Luozi, clashes moved from town to town as police pursued BDK militants in a security crackdown the government said aimed to restore state authority in Bas-Congo. A U.N. source, who asked not to be named, said there were further clashes over this weekend in three different towns and that three more BDK militants were killed. Congo's government has given an initial official death toll of 22 BDK militants killed during the Luozi clashes. But the preliminary internal reports from U.N. teams, which have visited the areas worst hit by the violence, documented 68 deaths in the ongoing crackdown. The documents indicated the final death toll could be much higher. |
| Posted by:Fred |