An enquiry report by the United Nations has revealed that two UN investigators who were killed in March possibly died in the hands of Congolese militia members, according to the AFP news agency.
The UN report also said that it will be necessary to conduct further probe to identify the militias who carried out the crime.
The two UN investigators, Michael Sharp, an American, and Zaida Catalan, a Swedish-Chilean dual national, were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo where they had gone on an official assignment to investigate violence and mass graves in the country’s troubled Kasai province.
READ: Bodies of missing U.N. investigators found in DR Congo
AFP quoted aspects of the executive summary of the UN report as saying that “A group of Congolese, likely militia members from the Kasai Central province, was responsible,” for the murders.
The report also said that “There was a reasonable likelihood that the killings were committed after consultation with other local tribal actors.”
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a letter this week told the Security Council that “further investigations and judicial processes would be required to fully ascertain the identity, affiliations, and motives of the individuals involved in the killing of Mr. Sharp and Ms. Catalan.”
READ: Two Congolese to face trial in murder of U.N. investigators
The UN chief on Wednesday told journalists that “the criminals would be punished.”
A visit to the crime scene is due on August 21. Over 3,000 lives have been lost in violence in the Kasai region displacing about 1.4 million people.
Source: Africafeeds.com
