28 April 2008
The United Nations mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) today condemned what it called a "criminal attack" on a lorry transporting civilians in the country's South Kivu province, which left eight civilians injured, three of them seriously.
The attack took place shortly before midday today, 60 kilometres northwest of the provincial capital Bukavu. Seven masked assailants, wearing civilian clothes, opened fire on the lorry before ransacking it. Government soldiers from a nearby military post arrived on the scene shortly afterwards and forced the attackers to flee after a twenty-minute fire-fight.
Pakistani peacekeeping troops with MONUC arrived 45 minutes later, evacuated the three most seriously wounded to a hospital in Bukavu and treated the others on site.
MONUC has launched a search for the assailants and called on all illegal armed groups in both South and North Kivu provinces to cease their attacks on civilian populations and to lay down their arms.
The east of DRC has been plagued in recent years by violence committed by rival armed groups.
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