Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - Extrajudicial executions as well as other serious human rights violations were committed in and around the town of Pinga in North Kivu (eastern Democratic Republic of Congo). This was revealed in a statement by MONUSCO (UN Observer Mission in the DRC), which accuses the Mai-Mai Sheka militia and those of the Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo (APLCS) of having committed violations of international humanitarian rights during their fights. There are also several children among the victims of the violence.
The statement recalled that, since August 2010 Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, the leader of the Mai-Mai group, along with his men, was hit by an arrest warrant issued by the Congolese judicial authorities for crimes against humanity, looting and kidnapping.
The fighters of Sheka are implicated in the mass rapes and other human rights violations committed on the axis Kibua-Mpofi, in the Walikale territory, between 30 July and 2 August 2010.
There is currently in North Kivu the deployment of the UN brigade of rapid intervention responsible for providing support to MONUSCO to disarm the various armed groups in the region. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 07/06/2013)
