GEMENA, DR Congo — Democratic Republic of Congo forces have retaken control of Dongo in the country's north-west where recent tribal clashes have forced thousands to flee, a UN military source said Monday.
The UN mission in the DR Congo and the army sent reinforcements to the area after the fighting erupted in Equateur province between the Lobala (or Enyele) tribe, which has been joined by former soldiers, and the Bomboma people.
The violence has claimed about 100 lives, mostly around Dongo where the clashes began. Dongo is about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Gemena, the main town in the Sud-Oubangui district.
The recapture of Dongo on Sunday was confirmed by an administrative official and leaders of civil society in Gemena.
Dongo was abandoned to insurgents after a November 26 attack on the police and a score of troops in the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUC.
At least 115,000 people have fled the violence, more than 77,000 of them across the Oubangui river into the Republic of Congo, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The Congolese army (FARDC) encountered no resistance in Dongo, where a group of Lobala led by a witchdoctor, Udjani, at the end of October attacked members of the Bombona community.
The strife spread across a region where the two tribes are at odds over rich fishing waters.
At the beginning of last week, Congolese commandos recaptured the villages of Bobito, Bozene and Tandala, east of Dongo, in heavy fighting with the insurgents. All these villages were largely abandoned by their populations.
The army said that it had lost five men, killed about 60 of the insurgents and taken several prisoners.
Witnesses told AFP in Bobito on Saturday that civilians had also been killed, notably a teacher, a father and his son, and a trader from Kinshasa.
On December 8, Udjani took about 40 of his men wounded by bullets to the hospital in Tandala for treatment, before going off with them and about 50 other fighters in the direction of Dongo.
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