The U.N. rights body says it will carry out a global court investigation after the discovery of 17 new mass graves in central Congo following brutal fighting between the army and local militia.
This brings to 40 the number of mass graves documented by the UN IN Kasai central, an area where the army has clashed with a local militia
Joy Otuyinka reports that in addition to the discovery of the graves, U.N. investigators gathered reports of rapes and killings by soldiers that they say the International Criminal Court should investigate if the government fails to.
The U.N. says the 17 grave sites were uncovered in Tshimbulu, and Tshienke, in Congo’s Kasai-Central province and that they had reports that Congolese soldiers had dug the grave sites after clashes with the Kamuina Nsapu militia in Congo’s central Kasai region in March last year.
Soldiers were reported to have shot dead at least 40 people last month, in a separate incident in the provincial capital of Kananga.
