UN police in DR of Congo help arrest 10 suspected of involvement in killings

Civilian police from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have helped arrest 10 people in connection with a massacre earlier this week in the country's Ituri region.

Fifteen people were killed and more than 90 homes were burned in an attack Monday on the village of Lengabo. Peacekeepers from the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) were dispatched immediately to the site.

On Thursday MONUC police assisted the DRC national police during a raid on the village of Medu, which is populated by the Ngiti ethnic group suspected of being involved in the Lengabo massacre. Local accounts at the time described the incident as a dispute between two communities.

Ten suspects, including two minors, were taken into custody and transferred to Bunia.

Searches were conducted simultaneously within the camp of the Front de Résistance Patriotique pour l'Ituri (FRPI) situated at the centre of Medu, located west of Bunia in the North Kivu province. Documents, uniforms, pieces of armament and ammunitions were seized.