Twenty people died in ethnic clashes last week in the troubled central Kasai region of Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said Wednesday.

The UN's DR Congo mission, MONUSCO, said in a statement that the clashes took place on April 19 east of the Kasai capital, Tshikapa, between members of the Lulua-Luba and Chowe-Pende communities, killing 20 Chowe-Pende people.

The Chowe-Pende consider themselves indigenous to the Kasai region and accuse the Lulua-Luba from the neighbouring Kasai region of supporting the Kamwina Nsapu militia.

The latter claim their authority from chief Kamwina Nsapu who was killed in the region in August 2016 by police after a rebellion against the Congolese authorities.

Kasai has since been shaken by violence between security forces and militias in which around 100 people died, including two UN experts -- American Michael Sharp and dual Swedish-Chilean national Zaida Catalan.

The Kamwina Nsapu rebellion has been accused by the UN of numerous atrocities and recruiting children.

The security forces, meanwhile, are blamed by the UN for making disproportionate use of force against militia armed mainly with sticks and stones. </s> At least 20 people were killed in ethnic clashes last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled Kasai region, according to the United Nations.

The UN's DR Congo mission said in a statement on Wednesday that the clashes took place in the central region, east of the Kasai capital, Tshikapa.

Violence between members of the Lulua-Luba and Chowe-Pende communities escalated, and saw at least 20 members of the Chowe-Pende killed, the agency said.

The Chowe-Pende accuse the Lulua-Luba of supporting the Kamwina Nsapu militia.

The Kamwina Nsapu militia claim its authority from chief Kamwina Nsapu, who was killed in the region in August 2016 by police after a rebellion against the Congolese authorities.

The militia has been fighting security forces largely to avenge the chief's death.

READ MORE: Kamwina Nsapu militia kill 40 policemen in DR Congo

According to the UN, fighting has killed at least 400 people, including two UN investigators, since government troops killed the chief eight months ago.

The violence has become the most serious threat to President Joseph Kabila, whose decision to stay in power after his mandate ran out in December gave rise to nationwide lawlessness.



The UN has accused the Kamwina Nsapu rebellion of numerous atrocities and of recruiting children for combat.

Numerous mass graves, reportedly dug by DRC soldiers after clashes with the militia, have also been found in the Kasai region.

The UN has almost 19,000 troops deployed in Congo, its largest and costliest peacekeeping mission. </s> DR Congo has been going through a prolonged political crisis which deepened in October after the presidential election, which had been due before the year's end, was postponed until April 2018. By Eduardo Soteras (AFP/File)

Goma (DR Congo) (AFP) - At least 34 civilians were killed Sunday in ethnic violence in restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities said.

"The provisional toll is 34 civilians killed," said local official Joy Bokele, referring to the attack by a Nande ethnicity militia on the Hutu village of Luhanga.

"They started by attacking the FARDC (DR Congo military) position. While they were attacking the FARDC, another group was executing the population with bladed weapons or bullets," Bokele said.

He added that the attack was carried out by a Nande militia group and that one of the attackers was killed in the clashes.

Tension between the Nande and Hutu peoples have been high in the restive east, shaken by two decades of fighting over land, ethnic tensions and mineral riches. </s> A man screams as people gather to protest in the neighbourhood of Yolo in Kinshasa on December 20, 2016. By Eduardo Soteras (AFP)

Kinshasa (AFP) - At least 11 people were killed in DR Congo on Tuesday as clashes erupted during protests against President Joseph Kabila who is refusing to leave office as his mandate ends, officials said.

Nine people died in Kinshasa during protests to demand that Kabila step down, a government spokesman said, while a protester and a policeman were killed in the second city Lubumbashi according the region's governor.

"In Kinshasa there were nine dead, not a single one more," said Lambert Mende, the government's chief spokesman.

The UN's mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, had earlier said it was probing reliable reports that around 20 people had been killed in the country's capital during protests.

Governor Jean-Claude Kazembe said that along with the two fatalities in Lubumbashi, three people had been hurt in clashes.

Kabila appears determined to cling on to power, and tensions in DR Congo have been running high, with police massing in the cities and many people staying home to avoid violence. </s> At least 34 civilians were killed on Sunday in a flare up of ethnic violence in restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities said, following a week of soaring tensions.

“The provisional toll is 34 civilians killed,” said local official Joy Bokele, referring to an attack by a Nande ethnicity militia on the Hutu village of Luhanga.

“They started by attacking the FARDC (DR Congo military) position. While they were attacking the FARDC, another group was executing the population with bladed weapons or bullets,” Bokele said.

Bokele added that the attack was carried out by a Nande militia group and that one of the attackers was killed in the clashes. Tensions between the Nande and Hutu peoples have been running high in the restive east, shaken by two decades of fighting over land, ethnic tensions and mineral riches.

The Nande accuse Congolese Hutus of abetting the FDLR Rwandan rebel group. The Hutus, in return, say they are looking for land where they can settle for farming and accuse the Nande of trying to expel them.

Sunday’s killings are the worst inter-communal violence in a year. Dozens of people have died since the start of the year in fighting between the Nande and the Hutus.

“If the army had not intervened, there would have been many more dead,” said a military source.

It is thought that the attack on the Hutu village was carried out by the Mai-Mai Mazembe, a Nande “self-defence” militia. “The militia was searching for members of the Hutu community and wreaked carnage before burning down the village entirely,” said a local rights group, the Centre for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (CEPADHO).

The group called on the government and the UN’s MONUSCO peacekeeping force in the country to take urgent action to prevent further ethnic violence.

“The Mai-Mai Mazembe made threats against the Hutus during the week, demanding that they leave the area or risk a purge,” CEPADHO added in a statement.

North Kivu has been the scene of repeated clashes for nearly two decades, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. </s> At least 34 civilians were killed Sunday in ethnic violence in restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities said.

"The provisional toll is 34 civilians killed," said local official Joy Bekele, referring to the attack by a Nance ethnicity militia on the Hutu village of Langa.

"They started by attacking the FARDC (DR Congo military) position. While they were attacking the FARDC, another group was executing the population with bladed weapons or bullets," Ms Bekele said.

He added that the attack was carried out by a Nance militia group and that one of the attackers was killed in the clashes.

Tension between the Nance and Hutu peoples have been high in the restive east, shaken by two decades of fighting over land, ethnic tensions and mineral riches. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption There have been months of unrest in Kasai, after a local chief started a rebellion

Two UN experts who were missing in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been found dead, officials say.

The bodies of US citizen Michael Sharp and Swedish national Zaida Catalan were discovered in the central Kasai region, a government spokesman said.

They were abducted two weeks ago after going to Kasai to investigate reports of abuses after local rebels took up arms.

Some 40 police officers were found beheaded in the region at the weekend.

Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende confirmed reports of the discovery to the BBC.

Mr Mende said that the bodies were found in a shallow grave, adding that "the woman was found beheaded, but the body of the man was intact".

In a statement from UN headquarters in UN, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said they "lost their lives seeking to understand the causes of conflict and insecurity'' in DR Congo.

"The United Nations will do everything possible to ensure that justice is done," he added.

Earlier, Mr Mende said that two bodies "of Caucasian or European type" had been discovered on the road linking Bukonde to Tshimbulu in Central Kasai.

"As far as I know, no other white individuals are missing here," Mr Mende said.

He later told reporters that a police commissioner had returned from Kasai with confirmation of their identities.

"According to a witness, they were ambushed by the famous traditionalist Kamwina Nsapu militia, who behead their victims," he said.

A third body found in the same location was that of their interpreter, Betu Tshintela.

'Words fail me'

Mr Sharp and Ms Catalan were taken, along with four Congolese support staff, into the forest near the village of Ngombe in Kasai.

The Congolese government is fighting a rebel group which operates in the area and is believed to have kidnapped the experts.

The violence in Kasai was sparked by the killing of traditional leader Kamwina Nsapu, who was leading an uprising against President Joseph Kabila.

Before Mr Mende announced the bodies had been identified, John Sharp, Michael's father, expressed his heartbreak on Facebook.

"This is a message I hoped never to write... Dental records and DNA samples will be used to confirm the identities," Mr Sharp wrote.

"All other words fail me." </s> United Nations investigators have found 17 new mass graves in the Democratic Republic of Congo , in an area that has seen fighting between soldiers and members of a local armed group, according to the UN rights chief.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, called the DRC's government to launch an investigation, threatening that the International Criminal Court would do so if authorities failed to take action.

Zeid said in a statement published by his office on Wednesday that he had reports that DRC soldiers had dug the graves after clashes with the Kamuina Nsapu militia in the central Kasai region in March.

"At least 74 people, including 30 children, were reported to have been killed by soldiers," in the clashes, he said, without giving details on the sources of his information.

During a separate incident in the provincial capital of Kananga last month, soldiers were reported to have shot dead at least 40 people and raped women and girls, Zeid said, again without saying who had made the reports.

Most of the victims were said to have been killed in their homes as soldiers went door to door looking for militia members, he added.

Fifteen of the newly confirmed sites are in the town of Tshimbulu, and two in Thsienke, a village near Kananga city.

The findings mean that the UN has now documented 40 mass grave sites and killings of more than 400 people in Kasai Central and Kasai Oriental provinces since last August.

"It is absolutely vital that the government ... takes meaningful steps to ensure that there is [an]... independent investigation," Zeid said.

"Should there be no effective national investigation, I will not hesitate to urge ... an investigation by an international mechanism, including the International Criminal Court."

Evidence first

The government of the DRC said it would investigate the reports once it saw the evidence.

Lambert Mende, the government spokesman, said the UN team should pass its evidence to the justice department.

"Then we will start investigations," he added.

The government has previously denied that soldiers have used disproportionate force against militia members, who are often armed with machetes and homemade rifles, and said that the militia had dug other mass graves.

Kasai is the focus of the fight against the Kamuina Nsapu militia since August, when security forces killed its leader. The militia has been fighting largely to avenge his death.

The violence has become the most serious threat to President Joseph Kabila, whose decision to stay in power after his mandate ran out in December has stoked lawlessness across the vast central African nation.

The government said last week that it had returned the body of the armed group's leader to his village, which had been one of the militia's key demands.

However, it was unclear whether this gesture would sooth tensions after such extensive killings.

The Kamwina Nsapu have been accused of recruiting child soldiers, and of attacking public authorities, schools and churches.



Hundreds of people have been killed and 200,000 displaced, according to the UN. </s> Twenty-three people have been killed in renewed clashes between ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled east, according to an official toll Wednesday.

The violence, in Rutshuru territory in the conflict-scarred province of North Kivu, has pitted the Hutu community on one side against the Nande and Hundu groups on the other.

"We have recorded the death of 16 civilians and seven militiamen since Sunday," Francois Bakundakabo, an aide to the provincial governor, told AFP.

Fighting occurred in the villages of Bwalanda, Mutanda and Kikuku, where the groups have regularly clashed over control of land. Several dozen people were killed in 2017.

The Nande and Hunde consider Congolese Hutu to be foreigners and in league with Rwandan Hutu rebels, gathered in a notoriously violent militia called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

The FDLR, set up in 2000, includes several leaders who took part in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis, as well as member of the Pygmy Batwa community, were slaughtered by the Hutu majority government.

Eastern DRC has been a theatre of ethnic violence for 20 years, fuelled in part by the desire to control valuable mineral resources and farmland.
The United Nations MONUSCO reports that 20 Chowe-Pende community members have been killed in clashes with the Lulua-Luba community in Kasaï-Central, Democratic Republic of Congo.