Scores Die in DR Congo Camp due to 'Criminal Neglect'

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Scores of people including 57 children have died of hunger or disease in a camp for demobilized rebels in the DR Congo, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, accusing the government of "criminal negligence".

"Officials failed to provide adequate food and health care" to the inmates at the remote camp in Kotakoli in the far northwest of the country, the New York-based rights group said.

It said 42 demobilized fighters and "at least five women and 57 children" had died at the camp since December 2013 -- and a diplomat said authorities have been aware of the deaths for months.

"The Congolese government's neglect of these former fighters and their families is criminal," said Ida Sawyer, a senior Congo researcher for the group, urging the government to move the inmates "before more people die".

"The military (should) investigate and prosecute those responsible for needless deaths in the camp," Sawyer added.

Kotakoli is among three military camps set aside for demobilized fighters from the DR Congo's myriad armed groups under a government program to reinsert them into society or absorb them into the army.

The Kotakoli inmates said they had been told they would be at the camp for no more than three months.

A diplomat in Kinshasa confirmed that conditions at the camp were "dire" and said that it had been known for months that several dozen people had died there.

A Western military source said the camp -- which HRW described as a "rundown former military commando training center built in 1965" -- housed 865 former rebels and 226 of their family members as of mid-July.

Defense Minister Alexandre Luba Ntambo, asked about the HRW's allegations, conceded that the situation at the camp was "bad" and referred to "people who were not adjusting".

But he said the government "did not send people there to kill them" and was taking steps to address the problem.

A diplomat said "civil authorities are well aware of the problem" but their hands were tied pending decisions "from the high military hierarchy."

HRW said supplying the camp was difficult because of the poor state of roads in the area, adding that a health worker had few supplies and could not speak the same languages as the ex-combatants.

Many rebel groups remain active in the eastern DR Congo after two decades of conflict in the region.