UN gives DRC June 8 deadline to investigate Kasai violence

The United Nations has given the Democratic Republic of Congo DRC two days to heed its calls to jointly investigate violence in Kasai province.

U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein says it may impose an international human rights inquiry upon the DRC if the country’s government fails to heed its calls for the investigation by the 8th of June.

Hundreds of people have been killed and over 1 million displaced since fighting broke out when police killed a militia leader last August.

“Given the difficulties in accessing the areas where violations and abuses are occurring, I will be dispatching to the region next week to meet with people fleeing the attacks.
Unless I receive appropriate responses from the Government regarding a joint investigation by the 8th of June, I will insist on the creation of an international investigative mechanism” says Ra’ad al-Hussein.

U.N. investigators have also discovered at least 42 mass graves in the Kasai region.

Insecurity in Congo, where millions died in civil wars in early 2000s, has worsened since December when President Joseph Kabila

refused to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate.