Four attackers and one soldier were killed. In another incident the same night, nine people were killed and five wounded in an attack on the village of Mubone, AFP reported. Survivors of last week's Rukaramu massacre, fled to the village of Maramvya only to come under attack again there. Some of them then moved on to Mubone. Medical workers, quoted by AFP, said more than 300 people had died in the wave of violence unleashed over the New Year.
Measures are in place to assist the population.
People from the troubled provinces of Bubanza and Cibitoke, who had found refuge in Rukaramu and Maramvya, were being kept in Mubone from where they would be returned to their home areas. The mission further observed that people were returning voluntarily to their homes in the two villages. Attempts to visit Mubone were denied by the military who said special authorisation was required from the interior ministry. An envoy of President Laurent-Desire Kabila is to meet in Brussels with exiled members of the ousted Zairean regime, in a bid to persuade them to return home. Kabila's communication adviser, Dominic Sakombi Inongo, will hold talks with exiles after the president last month urged them to come back and take part in national reconstruction, AFP said.