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A UN human rights group discovered more than 50 mbad graves in the western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after a series of killings in the region last month.
Abdul Aziz Thioye, director of the United Nations Common Human Rights Office (UNJHRO), said Saturday that "more than 50 mbad graves, as well as mbad graves and individual ones that we have identified," were discovered in the city of Yumbi The western province of the DRC Mai-Ndombe.
"This suggests that the number [of deaths] is quite high because a common pit depending on size can hold five, ten bodies "or even" one hundred body or four times more, "Thioye said at the end of a joint investigation mission with local authorities.
General Fall Sikabwe, head of the army in western DRC, told the AFP news agency that an investigation had been opened.
"They killed soldiers and policemen by taking their weapons to kill them," he said without giving more details about these murders.
Earlier this month, the UN announced that at least 890 people had been killed during three days of intercommunal clashes in the region.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, In a statement issued on January 16, the UN office was informed by "credible sources" that the population had been killed between December 16 and 18 in four villages in Yumbi.
The violence seems to be rooted in a long rivalry between the Banunu and Batende ethnic groups, which broke out when members of the Banunu tribe buried a traditional chief in the Batende territory on the night of 13 December.
About 465 houses and buildings were then burned or looted, including two primary schools, a health center, a market and the office of the National Electoral Commission, the UN human rights office announced.
The UN refugee agency said earlier this month that 16,000 people had fled their villages to the neighboring Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville.
In 2009, ethnic clashes in the region forced 130,000 people to flee to the Republic of Congo – which currently hosts 60,000 refugees, mainly from the DRC, the Central African Republic and Rwanda.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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