The United Nations Human Rights Office on Wednesday said about 890 people have been killed in ethnic violence in the northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The deaths were recorded last month alone according to the UN.
Members of the Batende and Banunu ethnic groups clashed over “the disputed location of a Banunu chief’s burial.”
Reuters earlier quoted a local priest who claimed at least 400 people died in the clashes last month.
But the U. N. human rights office’s figure doubles that estimate provided by the local priest and a civil society activist on Monday.
Elections delayed due to violence
The violent clashes last month forced election officials to delay DR Congo’s crucial polls in the Batende and Banunu communities.
The U.N statement said “according to allegations from credible sources, at least 890 people were killed between 16 and 18 December in four villages in Yumbi territory, Mai-Ndombe province in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
The statement continued that the communal fighting and rife looting around the town of Yumbi led to an estimated 16,000 people seeking refuge in the Republic of Congo by crossing the Congo River.
The U.N says 465 houses and buildings, including schools, a health centre, market and office of the national electoral commission, were destroyed during the violence.
The global body has ordered thorough investigation into the violence for the perpetrators be brought to justice.
DR Congo on the edge over elections
DR Congo is still on the edge after an opposition politician Felix Tshisekedi was declared winner of last month’s disputed presidential election.
Tshisekedi’s main contender Martin Fayulu has already filed an appeal in the constitutional court against the election results.
Fayulu came second in the votes and insisted that Tshisekedi did not win as announced by the election commission.
Source: Africafeeds.com
