Congo - Kinshasa
UN employee found dead in devastated Kisangani

afrol.com, 19 August - A member of a two-person advance party that had been sent to Kisangani, to assess the damages caused by fighting in that city, was found dead in his hotel room yesterday. Kisangani is the largest city in Eastern Congo and was hit hard by fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan troops 5-10 June this year.

The UN Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo is launching an investigation of the death of the UN employee. UN personnel are already on the ground working to determine the cause of death, the UN yesterday informed.

There are no embalming facilities in Kisangani, but the Mission intends to transport the body to one of the neighboring capitals as quickly as possible to perform any necessary tasks, including embalming and eventual transport his home.

The assessment mission to Kisangani included an advance party, which arrived in Kisangani earlier this week, as well as a five-member assessment team, led by Omar Bakhet, Director of UNDP's Emergency Response Division, which arrived in Kinshasa yesterday.

The situation in Kisangani itself remains miserable after the fighting between Rwandan and Ugandan forces 5-10 June. Not only were more than 1000 people killed, but the fightings also destroyed enterprises that provided employment to residents of the city, according to eye-witness reports obtained by AllAfrica.

The transportation system has broken totally down and the "rural-urban exodus has caused a major food crisis, which has brought even more desperation among the population," according to the same source.

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