UN flags concern about rise in ethnic violence in DR Congo during December

Credible reports suggest that at least 890 people were killed in ethnic violence in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo in mid-December, the United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday. "According to allegations from credible sources, at least 890 people were killed between 16 and 18 December in four villages in Yumbi territory, Mai-Ndombe province in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in what appear to have been clashes between the Banunu and Batende communities," it said in a statement, adding it had launched an investigation into the violence and widespread pillaging. On Monday, a local priest and a civil society activist said that at least 400 people had been killed in the clashes which led the government to cancel voting there in the presidential election.

(With inputs from agencies.)