Kinshasa – The UN officials on Wednesday said they would document potential human rights violations committed during joint operations by Congolese and Ugandan forces in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo against ADF rebels.
Aziz Thioye, DR Congo director of the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO), told AFP the body “is going to document human rights violations in the framework of joint operations led by the Congolese and Ugandan armies”.
“Indiscriminate bombardments could have caused collateral damage, putting at risk the life and the physical integrity of people who are with the ADF against their will,” Thioye told AFP on the sidelines of a UN mission press conference.
“The fact the bombardments were launched without warning could have caught out certain individuals who were in what is an agricultural zone,” Thioye added.
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He said the UN were waiting for an investigation to provide “concrete elements” regarding fatalities.
“There was a school that was temporarily occupied by the UPDF”, or Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces, in the village of Kamango, said Thioye, forcing lessons to be interrupted in what the UNJHRO considered a “violation of international law”.
On Tuesday the Ugandan army said it had hit three bases of the ADF, which has been blamed for massacres in eastern DRC and attacks in the Ugandan capital. The Islamic State jihadist group claims it as an affiliate.
On November 30, the UPDF, with the agreement of DRC authorities, bombarded ADF positions in the Virunga National Park known for its mountain gorillas prior to Ugandan land forces coming over the border to aid DRC troops.
The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) established itself in eastern DRC in 1995, becoming the deadliest of scores of outlawed forces in the troubled region.
It has been blamed for the killings of thousands of civilians over the past decade.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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