UN Congo HQ Under Siege
Hundreds of panicking residents converged on the UN headquarters here yesterday, cowering in the corridors as rampaging fighters with machine guns, machetes and spears stormed up the road outside, a day after 5,000 Ugandan troops abruptly withdrew from the war-torn region. A group of 40 United Nations peacekeepers from Uruguay took up full battle positions at windows, doors and the roof of the building, bracing for the afternoon onslaught from armed members of the Lendu ethnic tribe. By 4:43 p.m., 11:43 a.m. in New York, machine gun fire was heard outside the compound, sending those inside diving to the floor. “This could turn into another Rwanda,” Pilo Kamaragi, a professor at a local teachers’ training institute, said two hours before the fighting erupted. Full Story