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25 Dead, Thousands Displaced in Congo Crisis After Warlord Returns
January 26, 2012

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Kinshasa, Congo. Aid workers have declared “a humanitarian catastrophe” in southeastern Congo and blamed the recent deaths of at least 25 people on a feared warlord who broke out of jail late last year.

Kyungu “Gedeon” Mutanga’s return to northern Katanga prov ince has caused villagers to flee their homes by the thousands, and children are now starting to die of malnutrition due to their precarious living conditions, according to the African Association for the Defense of Human Rights.

The aid group said at least 12,500 people had been displaced and 10 women had been raped by Mutanga’s Mai Mai militia.

“There is no humanitarian assistance for these displaced people. They are living in little makeshift shelters,” association field officer Jean-Claude Baka said.

Mutanga was sentenced to death in 2009 for rape and crimes against humanity. On Sept. 7, 2011, he broke out of jail in the provincial capital of Lubumbashi and returned to the northern part of the province. He remains at large despite a $100,000 bounty placed on his head by the government.

“Kyungu Mutanga is at the root of a humanitarian catastrophe in Katanga,” the aid group said in a statement.

Dikanga Kazadi, minister of the interior for the province, said panic was spreading through the population, but it was too early to speak of a humanitarian crisis.

“The minister of the interior is in touch with aid partners to send assistance quickly,” he said, adding that preparations for a counterattack were underway.

Since 1998, more than 4.5 million people are estimated to have died as a result of a series of conflicts in the resource-rich central African country, by far the largest death toll in a conflict since the Second World War.

Associated Press