DR Congo truce broken

DR Congo truce broken

Civilians have been fleeing the fighting in the north-east

A truce agreed on Monday in north-eastern Democratic of Congo appears to have failed to halt the continuing violence.

The Ugandan army says 22 civilians were hacked to death in ethnic clashes in the past two days.

Eight people were killed with machetes and spears in the village of Madro, 9km south of Bunia, the main town in Ituri province, Major David Muhoozi said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday 14 people from the Hema tribe had been killed with machetes near Bunia, the army said.

The withdrawal of Ugandan forces from the area around Bunia is conditional on a truce.

Tension

However, the ceasefire agreed by factions and militias in the area did not include the UPC group that were dislodged from Bunia recently by the Ugandan army.

DR CONGO'S WAR

Four years

Seven foreign armies

At least 2 million dead

Disease and abuses widespread

A hard road to peace

Last week, Rwanda said it would return to DR Congo, unless Uganda also withdrew its troops.

Britain is a major donor to both Uganda and Rwanda and has been trying to reduce tensions between the former allies.

Their soldiers have clashed on several occasions on Congolese territory during the five-year DR Congo conflict.

Rwanda and Uganda have accused each other of arming the other's rebel groups operating in DR Congo.

More than two million people are believed to have died as a result of the war which began in 1998, and at one stage dragged in half a dozen foreign armies.