ALMOST 1,000 people have been killed in an outburst of ethnic violence in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, United Nations officials in the country confirmed yesterday.

The killings in the northeastern region of Ituri on Thursday occurred barely 24 hours after the belligerents in the country’s 40-year war signed a deal to set up a Government of national unity.

The massacre was the latest incident in a series of bloody intertribal feuds between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups, which are threatening to sabotage the Congo’s fragile peace process and plunge the country into renewed conflict.

According to the UN mission, which has 4,500 peacekeepers in the country, its investigators had been told that 996 had been massacred by militiamen armed with machetes and guns. “The investigating team identified 20 mass graves and visited 49 seriously injured people in hospitals,” a UN spokesman in Kinshasa said.

It is not clear who carried out the attacks, which lasted for between five and eight hours in the Roman Catholic parish of Drodro and 14 surrounding villages in the mineral-rich Ituri province. Witnesses told investigators that some attackers wore military uniforms while others were dressed in civilians clothes. “This is the worst atrocity since the start of the civil war,” the spokesman said.

On Saturday UN military observers visited the areas where the killings took place and spoke to witnesses, survivors and local leaders. Most of the victims are understood to be Hema tribesmen who were attacked by Lendu.

Thomas Lubanga, the head of the rebel Union of Congolese Patriots, which was recently engaged in fighting against Ugandan troops in Ituri, accused the Ugandan Army of taking part in the attacks by the Lendu. General Kale Kaihura, the commander of Ugandan troops in Ituri, rejected the claims, saying that he had sent his men to the site of the massacres after receiving information from local chiefs.

Representatives of the Congo’s warring factions had been praised on Wednesday for “taking a step closer to peace” by signing a deal to form the country’s first power-sharing Government in 40 years. Leaders of the Kinshasa Government, rebel groups, political parties and civil organisations signed the agreement in Sun City, South Africa, committing them to hold the country’s first democratic elections since independence from Belgium in 1960.

Under the terms of the postwar political settlement, President Kabila will lead a two-year transitional government, assisted by four vice-presidents chosen from the existing Government, the two main rebel groups and the political opposition.

“Today is a day of unity,” Kikaya Bin Karubi, the Information Minister, said. “Today is a day when we put an end to a war that has been tearing our country apart. Today is a day of reconciliation.”

Representatives from ten African states witnessed the signing ceremony, which was hosted by President Mbeki of South Africa. However, the failure of Mr Kabila to attend the ceremony raised questions about his commitment to the transitional Government, which analysts said was already in danger of collapse because of renewed fighting in the north and east.

There are signs of further instability elsewhere in the country. Gunfire resounded yesterday afternoon in the town of Bukavu, the main centre in the eastern province of South Kivu.

A spokesman for the rebel group which controls Bukavu, the Congolese Rally for Democracy, said that it was a “restrained” attack by local militia in protest at the arrest of their leader on Thursday.

Congo was plunged into war in 1998, when rebel groups backed by Rwanda and Uganda overthrew the Government of the late Laurent Kabila. Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe sent troops to support the besieged administration, leading to a conflict in which two million people have died.

Most foreign troops were withdrawn at the end of last year under a 1999 ceasefire agreement. At the same time, blood-letting was provoked between the Hema and Lendu in the northeast.

The country has two years to prepare for elections for a 500-seat national assembly and a 120-seat senate. Few analysts believe that the elections will be held on time.

One observer said: “It was easy for them to reach agreement in South Africa, but it will be much harder for them to come together at home and make it work.”

Some observers fear that the latest massacres may prompt renewed intervention by Uganda and Rwanda.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• No apology for Germany’s own Nazi victims
• Intricate web of fear and hope tying down deal
• Victims remembered a year after Mumbai attacks