DRC’s gruesome violence could be a prelude to a genocide, warns UN
Geneva — Mutilation, gang rape and killing documented in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Kasai region could be a harbinger of genocide, the UN torture investigator told Reuters on Wednesday, calling for action to prevent another Rwanda or Srebrenica. Nils Melzer, UN special rapporteur on torture worldwide, said he was alarmed by a report issued by UN human rights experts on Tuesday which said DRC rebels and government troops have committed atrocities, including mass rape, cannibalism and the dismemberment of civilians. The UN report — building on an earlier report accusing all sides of war crimes and crimes against humanity — catalogued gruesome attacks committed in the conflict in the central region of Kasai, which began in late 2016, involving the Kamuina Nsapu and Bana Mura militias and DRC’s armed forces. "My greatest concern, however, is that what we are witnessing today may be only the prelude of what is still to come. In my view, Kasai already today bears the signatu...
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