In a unanimous vote, the United Nations Security Council has approved the deployment of a multi-national security force to the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. France will lead a force of more than 1,000 peacekeepers as a response to the past month of inter-ethnic violence, which intensified with the withdrawal of the Ugandan military early in May. Members of the Hema and Lendu tribes have been attacking each other with increasing ferocity, displacing thousands of civilians from their homes and, according to some reports, killing more than 400 near the town of Bunia in recent weeks. The Mbuti people, also known as Pygmies, have also been victims of the chaos reigning in Ituri. Two weeks ago Sinafasi Makelo, a Mbuti representative to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, visited the UN and accused rebel fighters of hunting, killing and eating Mbuti people.
