UN delivers aid to survivors of massacre in Ituri

A UN helicopter flew 200 kg of medicines and plastic sheeting on Monday to survivors of an attack on a Hema community in Drodro, in northeastern Ituri district, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as UN officials investigated a massacre there last Thursday said to have claimed around 1,000 victims. The UN mission in the DRC, MONUC, said in a statement on Sunday that a team comprising MONUC members, representatives of the Hema community, and officers from the Ugandan army, had arrived at the site on Saturday and confirmed the attack on the parish of Drodro. Local chiefs gave lists of 996 people summarily executed in Drodro, 80 km north of the principal town of Bunia, and 14 surrounding places, MONUC said. The investigation team saw 49 victims, suffering from machete and bullet wounds, in a local hospital. The team was shown 20 mass graves, marked with fresh traces of blood and fragments of clothing, said to contain 250 bodies. According to witnesses, the attack began at around 0500 local time and lasted three hours. The assailants - men, women and children, some in military uniform, others in civilian clothes - attacked from five directions. Some spoke the Lendu language, others spoke in Swahili, MONUC said. MONUC said the team interviewed church officials, local leaders, around 15 victims of the attack, and other eyewitnesses. It said representatives of the Lendu community declined an invitation to participate in the investigation. The humanitarian adviser for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Bunia, Mohamud Hashi, told IRIN: "After a doctor from Drodro told me about the massacre, we met with our partners and organised assistance for this area." Hashi said OCHA was monitoring the situation closely and would co-ordinate the delivery of additional aid in the coming days. The commander of the Ugandan forces controlling Ituri, Brig Kale Kayihura, told IRIN on Sunday he estimated between 300 to 400 had been killed in the attacks. He said the Lendu fighters attacking Drodro, Mbulukwa and Largo had used "mostly cutlasses, bows and arrows." The Hema villagers had not put up a fight, he said. It is unclear what sparked off this attack. Fighting between Hema and Lendu dates back years, but has intensified during the past four years. The Ituri Pacification Commission, involving representatives of armed groups and local communities in the district, opened in Bunia on 4 April.