A deadline for gunmen to leave Bunia in northeastern Congo passed on Wednesday with signs of reluctant compliance by militia fighters, while French troops enforcing the ban tightened their grip on the town. French soldiers form the muscle in an international force sent this month to shield residents from massacres in Bunia, focus of a power struggle between rival ethnic militia that killed hundreds in May alone. Militiamen told by the French to get out of town by midday could be seen loading their rifles into cars and driving away from their headquarters after the ultimatum expired, while their wives and children piled mattresses into pick-up trucks. “We’ve already sent out all our fighters,” said “Major” Eric Dhedonga, 23, of the Union of Congolese Patriots militia (UPC) which has its headquarters in Bunia. Full Story
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