Six Congolese soldiers have died of hunger in an army training camp that ran out of food in the east of the country, UN and government officials say.
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The camp, located in Kamina in southeastern Katanga province, houses ex-militiamen and former rebel fighters now being retrained to serve in a unified army. Defence Ministry spokesman Delion Kimbu said at least a thousand soldiers arrived at the training camp this week to find insufficient food rations there. "Many soldiers had walked large distances to reach Kamina, they were fatigued and hungry," Kimbu said, adding that the dead soldiers had once belonged to traditional Mayi-Mayi militia units once active in the region during a 1998-2002 war that drew in the armies of half a dozen African nations. |