Soldiers went on an overnight looting and shooting spree in a sprawling refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), stealing from hungry and traumatized people who have fled fighting in the country’s east, witnesses said Monday.
They said one woman was killed by a stray bullet on Sunday night in Kibati, a village north of the eastern provincial capital of Goma that has been overrun by about 70,000 refugees.
Patrice Sebahunde, 60, said he was awakened at 10pm by four soldiers pointing guns in his face. They took his family’s food, clothes and their plastic water bucket.
“They came up, pointed a gun at me, and said, ‘Wake up, wake up, give us money and everything you have,’” Sebahunde said.
Bernard Udafuye said his house also was looted by soldiers Sunday night who stole food and a bucket but he did not blame them.
“It was just an accident, that they stole from us,” he said. “They are hungry.”
Witnesses said the soldiers shot in the air, and that one stray bullet hit a 45-year-old woman in the head, killing her instantly. A 20-year-old woman was killed at Kibati on Thursday night when a bullet pierced her tent and hit her in the head.
UN refugee officials who had reported Thursday’s shooting said they had no information about any violence on Sunday.
“Shooting is not something you can easily hide,” said spokesman David Nthegwe, who added that a two-year-old girl died of sickness, possibly malaria, at the camp on Sunday night. “Our information on the ground last night says there was no looting and nobody was killed.”
But at least 10 witnesses who spoke separately to The Associated Press told the same story.
“Last night soldiers came here to the camp to cause trouble,” said Maria Mukawera, 47. “They came to steal. They started shooting in the air. I saw it with my own eyes.”
Sunday’s rampage followed an afternoon showdown between soldiers and UN peacekeepers outside the camp.
Soldiers stopped the peacekeepers’ convoy at an impromptu roadblock and dragged 23 Congolese men off the trucks, accusing them of being rebels. UN officials said the men were rebels who had surrendered as well as national policemen and civilians.
During the incident, people hurled stones at the peacekeepers’ vehicles, angry at the organization’s failure to protect them. One peacekeeper was injured, UN military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich said.
In related news, Human Rights Watch said in a report yesterday that the DR Congo government had killed “at least 500” suspected political opponents in the last two years.
The New York-based rights campaigners accused DR Congo President Joseph Kabila’s government of “brutal repression,” saying “about 1,000 more” have been detained since July 2006 elections aimed at bringing democracy to the vast central African nation.
The NGO said many of those held reported having been tortured.
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