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During this trip I had seen the very worst elements of African native life. Nearly forty years have elapsed since then, but those memories have not faded. Indelibly stamped on my mind are the savage rites at the death of the old chief and the lingering death of the cannibals' victims. Today, and not very far from where I witnessed these inhuman acts, the same customs are still being practised) but on a much smaller scale. The advance of civilisation is slowly changing all that and I can only hope that this black page in the history of Africa will soon fall into the limbo of forgotten things

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The Associated Press

January 8, 2003, Wednesday,

HEADLINE: U.N. probing reports of cannibalism of Pygmies in Congo by rebel troops

BYLINE: By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: NAIROBI, Kenya

U.N. investigators have found credible evidence that Congolese rebel troops have killed and eaten Pygmies in northeastern Congo, U.N. officials said Wednesday.

During the past week, U.N. human rights investigators have been probing reports of cannibalism in Ituri province. Forces of the rebel Congolese Liberation Movement, or MLC, and its allied Congolese Rally for Democracy-National, RCD-N, are accused of killing and eating Pygmies in the dense tropical forests.

"The U.N. is taking these accusations very seriously and has sent a team of six officials to investigate the accusations and other human rights abuses in the region," said Manodje Mounoubai, spokesman for the U.N. mission in
Congo.

Speaking by telephone from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, Mounoubai declined to give further information until until investigators leave the area.

Other U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators have established that the charges are credible.

The two rebel factions often hire Pygmies to hunt food for them in the forests as they fight to oust the rival rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation, or RCD-ML, from mineral-rich areas of Ituri province, a U.N. official familiar with the probe said.

If the expert hunters return empty-handed, rebel troops kill and eat them, the official said.

Sudi Alimasi, an official with the rival RCD-ML, said people displaced by fighting began reporting incidents of cannibalism more than a week ago.

"We hear reports of MLC and RCD-N commanders feeding on sexual organs of Pygmies, apparently believing this would give them strength," Alimasi said from Kinshasa. "We also have reports of Pygmies being forced to feed on cooked remains of their colleagues."

The Program for Aid to Pygmies in Beni, a Congolese advocacy group, called for help for the Pygmies, who it said were "threatened with extinction."

"It is unacceptable that the international community focuses on protecting endangered animals like the okapi, the mountain gorilla and the rhinoceros and pays no attention to the fate of human beings like the Pygmies, who are
nevertheless every bit as much in danger of extinction," the group said.

Pygmies, not all of whom are below average height, are believed to be the earliest inhabitants of Central Africa. An estimated 600,000 live in Congo.

Nearly all foreign troops involved in the war in Congo that broke out in August 1998 have withdrawn, but fighting has intensified among the country's main rebel factions, splinter groups and tribal fighters.

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