LRA victim Congo prince

Mar 06, 2008

The Congolese fisherman who was killed by the LRA rebels last Saturday was heir to the throne of the local tribe, Radio Okapi, the UN radio in Congo, has announced.

By Vision Reporter

The Congolese fisherman who was killed by the LRA rebels last Saturday was heir to the throne of the local tribe, Radio Okapi, the UN radio in Congo, has announced.

Mr. Ete, a prince of the Gbadi people, was shot dead as he was fishing in Djugu, a town at the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

The Congolese civil society decried the circumstances of the murder. “He was slain by about ten LRA elements,” the organisation was quoted by Radio Okapi on Wednesday.

“The Ugandan rebels then profaned his corps by piercing his eyes and cutting off his sex after having wounded him in the arms and legs.” Local villagers discovered the mutilated body on Sunday and buried it, the statement added.

According to the civil society, this umpteenth crime committed by the LRA illustrates the porosity of the borders between Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic.

“There is no Congolese soldier at close to 500km of the borders. This allows foreign rebel groups to violate the territorial integrity of the DRC at will and commit crimes on a regular basis,” the groups told the UN radio.

“Traumatised, the population feels abandoned by the authorities it elected.”

On February 12, the chief of Nyemulu village in Diabo, 187km from Dungu, was also killed by LRA rebels.

Still according to Radio Okapi, the Congolese civil society yesterday asked the UN mission in Congo to help liberate two hostages held by the LRA.

In a report, the organisation asked MONUC to intervene and demand that the rebels release two Congolese abducted in the area recently.

“The first hostage, Reginald Kumbadeko, was abducted 87km from the main town in Dungu on December 14.

The second, Kumbolani Imalu, a student of Ndolomo Primary School, was abducted by the same rebels on February 13,” the UN radio said.

The recent LRA attacks come as the LRA and the Ugandan Government are about to sign a final peace agreement which would end over two decades of insurgency in northern Uganda.

The pact is expected to be signed by March 28 although LRA leader Joseph Kony still insists that the indictments, issued against him and two of his commanders by the International Criminal Court (ICC), be lifted first.

An LRA delegation is due to travel to the ICC in The Hague on Monday but the prosecutor has said he will not meet them outside the court room.

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