'Savage killing' of UN observers

The UN have struggled to halt clashes in the area

Two observers from the 700 strong mission in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been "savagely killed", a UN spokesman has announced.

The soldiers, a Nigerian and a Jordanian, went missing last Tuesday, at a post some 70 km north of the town of Bunia, where the majority of UN staff are based.

So far the UN peacekeepers have proved too few in number to stop the fighting between ethnic militias that has left hundreds of civilians dead.

A team of 12 French soldiers has arrived in DR Congo and is expected in Bunia on Tuesday.

They are reported to be planning the possible deployment of French troops to the troubled north-east.

The UK is considering a UN request to send troops.

A truce was signed by the rival militias on Friday, and fighting stopped on Sunday in Bunia.

Bunia

Chipe, aged 10, is part of a Hema militia now in control of much of Bunia

The UN mission said that when the reached the town of Mongbwalu on Sunday it found the two men's bodies had already been buried. They returned the bodies to Bunia on Sunday night.

"They were posted there as part of the observer mission," spokesman Hamadoun Toure told the BBC's Network Africa.

"We have begun an investigation into who has done this so we can put them to trial," he said.

"The first indications make you think that the observers were savagely killed," a UN statement said, without going into details.

UN special representative in DR Congo Namanga Ngongi condemned the "ignoble and revolting" attacks on the observers.

Scores of people have been killed in the clashes which began again soon after the Ugandan forces withdrew from Bunia about two weeks ago, as part of a wider peace deal.

All UN observers operating outside Bunia were brought back to the town two or three days ago for security reasons.

"There is no shooting or fighting in Bunia, but the situation is tense," a UN observer told Reuters news agency.

"Life is not fully normal, shops are still closed here and most of the people are still in hiding trying to remain safe."

Ugandans go

On Monday, Uganda announced it had completed its pull out of troops from DR Congo.

UNREST IN ITURI REGION

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In pictures

A final battalion of about 1,000 soldiers crossed the border, along with up to 2,000 fleeing Congolese civilians.

AP news agency reports that some 16,000 Congolese civilians have fled to Uganda since the clashes began in and around Bunia two weeks ago.

UN officials and others have warned of possible genocide in Bunia and elsewhere in the Ituri province.

Hemas, traditionally cattle-raisers, and Lendus, predominantly farmers, have been in conflict for centuries for land and other resources in the area.

The rivalry has become more bloody because Ituri province around Bunia is rich with gold, and neighbouring nations that became involved in wars in the DR Congo in the 1990s - Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia - had armed both sides as proxy militias.