Nine Un Soldiers Die in Congo Ambush

Nine Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers were killed by gunmen yesterday in an attack on a patrol in eastern Congo.

The ambush, one of the deadliest ever on the 16,000-member UN mission in Congo, happened near the town of Kafe, 20 miles north-west of Bunia, the capital of the lawless Ituri district.

The region is one of the worst troublespots in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is estimated that militias have killed 50,000 civilians since 1999.

The Bangladeshis were among members of two UN patrols assigned to protect a camp for those displaced by fighting in Ituri, the UN said. It had sent an attack helicopter and a transport helicopter to back up troops in the fight.

The ambush came a day after a number of militiamen were arrested by UN troops. A UN spokesman told the BBC: "There might be a relationship between the two events."

The 4,800-strong UN force in Ituri is made up of contingents from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco and Nepal. Attacks on civilians are frequent and in the past two months at least 20,000 civilians have been displaced, aid workers say.

On Thursday Médecins sans Frontières suspended activities at two refugee camps in Ituri because of "intense movements of armed groups". It said ethnic tensions had worsened and "acts of extreme violence have been perpetrated against fleeing civilians".

"In some of the affected areas, one in four children is showing signs of moderate or severe malnutrition," it added.

Congo is struggling to recover from a wider civil war which sucked in neighbouring countries and has killed between three- and four million people.

The UN peacekeeping mission of 16,000 soldiers from some 50 countries is the world's biggest.

The transitional government in Kinshasa has struggled to exert its authority in the east.

The fighting in Ituri is mainly between militias of the Hema and Lendu tribes, who carry out tit-for-tat village raids and massacres.