Congolese army soldiers loot, rape in bonus protest
Source: Reuters
By Joe Bavier KINSHASA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Congolese soldiers protesting over unpaid bonuses fired guns and grenades, looted shops and homes and raped the adopted daughter of a foreign aid worker in a night-long rampage in the east, officials said on Friday. Moroccan U.N. peacekeepers and local military authorities arrested at least 24 soldiers following the shooting and looting spree around Ndromo army camp in Bunia, the main city in Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri district. "They were shooting until 7.40 this morning," said Madnodje Mounoubai, spokesman in Bunia for the U.N. Congo peacekeeping mission, known as MONUC. "MONUC deployed to stop the advance of the soldiers towards the city centre. They carried out patrols all night," he said. The rioting troops, who complained they had not been paid promised year-end bonuses, fired off automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades. Homes and shops were looted. The U.N. spokesman said the 18-year-old adopted daughter of a U.N. World Food Programme employee was raped by some of the rampaging soldiers. The army's commander in Ituri, General Vainqueur Malaya, told Reuters the arrested men had been handed over to judicial authorities. Violence has persisted in Congo's lawless east, which bore the brunt of a 1998-2003 war and where renegade militias still control large areas. The U.N. has its largest peacekeeping force in the world, 17,000-strong, deployed in Congo to help a national army which is being put together from a variety of former warring rebel and militia groups. The arrested soldiers were members of the first of such integrated brigades to be formed with foreign funding and training. Diplomats and aid workers say the fledgling national army is still badly paid, operates in appalling conditions and is the single worst human rights abuser in the country. They say it requires extensive training and reform. Congo held its first free elections in more than 40 years last year, which were won by incumbent President Joseph Kabila, who has pledged to try to rebuild the vast, mineral-rich former Belgian colony and restore security. But analysts say he will require massive continued international support to help him do this.
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