DRC: UN and Congolese soldiers launched a major operation against a militia in the lawless east of the country yesterday, four days after a landmark poll to adopt a post-war constitution, the UN has said.
A UN spokesman said a government soldier and seven militiamen were killed when hundreds of Nepalese UN peacekeepers and about 1,500 Congolese soldiers, backed up by helicopter gunships, clashed with militiamen in Ituri province.
The clashes highlighted insecurity in the east, days after millions voted in the Democratic Republic of Congo's first free national poll in 40 years. Latest results released yesterday showed that, with nearly 60 per cent of polling stations counted, the "yes" vote had just over 80 per cent, which appeared to guarantee the adoption of a constitution and pave the way for elections in 2006.
Major Hans-Jakob Reichen, a military spokesman for the UN, said the militiamen were Lendu fighters who have refused to join a UN-backed disarmament process and are accused of atrocities against civilians.
The country's five-year war officially ended in 2003, but bands of gunmen still terrorise civilians in large areas of the country, particularly in the east.
The UN force has often been accused of failing to protect civilians in the eastern Ituri province, but this year it has carried out more robust operations with a new Congolese army drawn from former rebel movements and existing government forces.
Some 15,000 fighters signed up to the disarmament process in Ituri, but several thousand are believed to have remained in the bush, persecuting civilians and resisting efforts to re-establish central government authority.
The UN Security Council stepped up a drive on Wednesday to rid eastern Congo of Rwandan Hutu rebels, who have hidden out there for more than a decade. It authorised UN sanctions to be imposed on the leaders of armed groups who have failed to disarm and leave the country.