Abducted priest found dead in Congo

The army has been fighting Ninja rebels since April

By Pascale Harter BBC, Brazzaville

The body of an abducted French priest has been recovered in the Pool region of Congo-Brazzaville.

The priest, Father Jean Guth, was kidnapped on 31 March by a resurgent rebel militia known as the Ninjas.

There had been little news of the 63-year-old priest since he was captured after holding Easter mass in the village of Kindamba in Pool, 250 kilometres (155 miles) west of Brazzaville.

Now his body has been found in an unmarked grave in the village of Bangou, 50 km (30 miles) from where he was kidnapped.

He is believed to have died last month from malaria for which he did not receive treatment while held by the rebels.

Burial

The Ninjas - a splinter group from a militia active during Congo Brazzaville's civil wars in the 1990s - style themselves on the ancient Japanese warriors.

Their leader, a mystic cult figure who calls himself Pasteur Ntumi, did not issue any demands for the priest's release to the Congolese or French governments.

Father Guth's body will not be returned to France.

Instead the priest, who spent 36 years working in Congo surviving three civil wars, will be buried in Brazzaville on Monday.